Couplings incorporating rubber-cord shells, and their viscoelastic characteristics have been studied. The effectiveness of the couplings to limit the dynamic load is shown by an example of aballmill drive. It has been found that the use of the couplings equipped withrubber-cord shells as the flexible elements allows limiting the dynamic shock loads in machinedrives. It has been shown that the elimination of resonance modes and restriction of forced torque fluctuations in the drive can be providedby selecting a limit torque for the coupling actuation, which is determined by an initial air pressure in the rubber-cord shells of the coupling.