Learn English – Difference between “special equipment” and “specialized equipment”

differenceregister

My translation of a text by a pipe-producing plant:

Bevel angle inspection

Inspection of this type is carried out as specified in the regulatory documentation using a bevel protractor or a gauge.

Pipe length inspection

Inspection of this type is carried out using rulers, tape measure tools or automatically using special (or specialized?) equipment fitted with incremental sensors.

The general meaning in the original text is "some equipment that was designed for measuring pipes". The phrase was chosen in order not to overload the production catalogue by naming the specific equipment.

Would both "special" and "specialized" have the same meaning here?

I googled and found many examples for "using special equipment" and "using specialized equipment", as well as for "use of special equipment" and "use of specialized equipment". There does not seem to be much difference. Maybe "specialized" might indicate a more restricted specialization relative to "special", or that the equipment was modified for some particular purpose.

enter image description here

Best Answer

special equipment

only means it is not equipment normally used. It says nothing about the purpose of using the equipment.

specialized equipment

indicates that the purpose of the equipment is focused on a particular application. See specialized:

  1. Designed for a specific purpose or use: a specialized computer application.

Using special is far more general in scope, basically just saying it is unusual or not often used.

Related Topic