4th Edition

Shaft Alignment Handbook

By John Piotrowski, Robert Piotrowski Copyright 2026
876 Pages 886 Color Illustrations
by CRC Press

Shaft Alignment Handbook , Fourth Edition, presents the most comprehensive guide to rotating machinery alignment, based on years of hands-on experience. The most trusted and widely embraced guide in the field, the fourth edition includes improved illustrations and photographs in color, updated information on the tools used to measure and correct misalignment conditions, newly discovered... Read more

Chapter 1         Introduction to Shaft Alignment

Chapter 2         Detecting Misalignment on Rotating Machinery

Chapter 3         Shaft Alignment Tools

Chapter 4         Foundations, Baseplates, and External Connections

Chapter 5         Flexible and Rigid Couplings

Chapter 6         Preliminary Alignment Checks

Chapter 7         Alignment Modeling Basics

Chapter 8         Defining Misalignment - Alignment and Coupling Tolerances

Chapter 9         Reverse Indicator Method

Chapter 10       Face and Rim Method

Chapter 11       Double Radial Method

Chapter 12       Shaft to Coupling Spool Method

Chapter 13       Face - Face Method

Chapter 14       Electronic and Electro-Optical Shaft Alignment Systems

Chapter 15          Correcting Misalignment

Chapter 16     Measuring and compensating for off-line to running

                         machinery movement

Chapter 17       Aligning multiple element drive systems

Chapter 18       Aligning V-Belt drives

Chapter 19        Bore Alignment

Chapter 20       Parallel Alignment

Chapter 21       Alignment Considerations for Specific Types of Machinery

Chapter 22       The History of Machinery Alignment 

Biography

John Piotrowski graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, USA  in 1974 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He has been working with rotating machinery in industry for over 50 years and is considered to be one of the leading authorities on alignment of rotating machinery. He has authored over fifty technical articles on the subject and is author of the Basic Shaft Alignment Workbook, the Shaft Alignment Self Study Guide, and the Shaft Alignment Handbook (now in its 4th edition).

Mr. Piotrowski is an active member of the Vibration Institute. Since founding Turvac Inc. in 1982, he has trained over 7500 people in shaft alignment principles and methodology, been a consultant to several major shaft alignment equipment manufacturers and participated in alignment service work in a wide variety of industries. He has designed training demonstrators for alignment and balancing, shaft alignment measurement systems, shaft alignment software programs, invented the Ball-Rod-Tubing Connector system used to measure offline to running machinery movement, and performed several controlled alignment/ vibration tests. 

Robert Piotrowski graduated from Wright State University, USA in 2019 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Since graduating, he has been working with rotating machinery in industry, specifically in shaft alignment and vibration analysis. He has also been certified in Level II Shaft Alignment. He has trained over 100 people in shaft alignment and is an active member of the Vibration Institute. Robert has a passion to grow his knowledge of the vast subject that is shaft alignment and wants to share this with as many people as he can.