Equipment that converts electrical or chemical energy into shaft work to drive pumps, compressors, fans and other machines — it never touches the process fluid. Every rotating machine train is the driver + driven pair: the reliability of the set is that of the weakest link, and failure analysis must look at both sides of the coupling.
Families
- Electric Motors — the dominant industrial driver (ISO 14224 class EM).
- Combustion engines (class CE) — diesel and gas, typical of emergency services and remote sites. (family in Phase 1)
Boundary note: steam and gas turbines also render driving service, but their primary function on their own working fluid is to extract energy from it — they live in Energy Extraction from the Fluid.