Roller Bearings

Roller bearings use cylinders of slightly greater length than diameter and are the earliest known type of rolling element bearing. Common types include: cylindrical, tapered, spherical, cylindrical thrust and needle bearings.  Their design elements include:

• Typically constructed of an outer race, inner race, rolling elements and a cage.
• Single, double, or more rows of rolling elements.
• Moderately high speed applications.
  
• Typically have a cage or retainer (not shown in cylindrical and tapered images above).
• The expense of a roller bearing is related to the complexity of manufacturing process. In order of increasing complexity to produce: cylindrical, needle, tapered and spherical.
• Have high radial load capacity but low axial (thrust) capacity.  Exception is the tapered bearing which has high radial and axial capacity.
• Tapered bearing is the only adjustable bearing.  Can adjust clearance between race and rollers to maximize machine performance and extend bearing life.
• Typical applications include medium to heavy duty electric motors, fabricated housings, rolling mills, pillow blocks, large gear boxes, reduction units, machine tools, vehicles, etc.