ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION Whenever two pieces of rotating equipment need to be connected, the question arises as to whether they should be directly coupled or indirectly coupled. Equipment can be indirectly coupled by belts or chains (see Figure 5.1 A), but indirectly coupled equipment is usually less efficient than directly coupled equipment. This is normally due to the frictional losses from the belts and chains slipping and or sliding when they transmit power. Therefore, it is usually preferable to directly couple two pieces of rotating equipment (Figure 5.1B).
