A pipe adapter is a fitting that is used to connect pipes of different materials or pipes that require different joining methods. For example, it can join a pipe that is threaded to a pipe or tube that is not threaded, one of the most important type of pipe fittings. Adapters are available in various materials like aluminum, brass, bronze, copper, steel, stainless, plastic etc, depending on their final application. Apart from being available in various materials, these are also custom made in a large range of sizes, depending on their Inner and Outer Diameters (ID and OD).

Some of the popular types of adapters are :

Male and female adapters from a popular classification criteria.

• Female Adapters are used to add a female threaded pipe connection on a solvent welded pipe (they must never be used when converting to a metallic pipe as the metal male pipe threads tend to split the PVC fittings). Also, metal male threads should never be inserted into any female threaded PVC fitting.
• Male Adapters are used to add a male threaded pipe connection to a solvent weld pipe section.

Features of industrial adapters are that they are :