Bearings can vary in size from as small as a pin head to the size of a family car! They can have varying sizes and shapes of rolling elements made from Steel, Stainless Steel and Ceramics. Their primary function is to reduce friction, carry loads and guide moving parts. Basically anything in our lives that has a rotating shaft will have a bearing of one kind or another. The different bearing types often dictate their uses and applications. To find out more about bearings and their different applications, check out the most common "types of bearings" below...

There are 3 main types of ball bearings: Deep Groove, Angular Contact and Self- Aligning. The most common and versatile ball bearing type is the Deep Groove – it has a groove on the outer face of the inner raceway and a groove in the inner face of the outer. Their main applications are in electric motors, conveyors and pumps and gearboxes. Although their design is to take radial load they can take small amounts of axial load. Depending on their size they can travel at very high speeds. Many variations are available – open, sealed, shielded, enlarged internal clearance, grease fills; all for hundreds of various applications.

Angular Contact Ball Bearings are similar in design to that of Deep Groove, but they have a shoulder on one side of the inner raceway which determines the precision of the angle this can be 40, 25 and 15 degrees (Double – Row Angular Contact bearings have a contact angle of 30 degrees).

These bearings are predominately used in pumps, machine tool spindles – high speed applications, where a degree of precision is required.Angular Contact Bearings are normally open but the double – row range is available as a sealed or shielded version.

Self Aligning Ball bearings have 2 rows of rolling elements whereby the groove on the outer face of the raceway is similar to that of the Deep Groove ball bearing the inner face of the outer raceway is profiled. It is this that allows the bearing to accommodate mis alignment. This is particularly useful in applications that have potential movement through the shaft and the need for flexibility when the shaft is rotating.

They are available open or sealed, with varying internal clearances for speed or temperature related needs.

There are 5 types of Roller bearings: Cylindrical, Needle, Taper, Spherical and CARB (Compact Aligning Roller Bearing – launched by SKF in 1995) Roller bearings tend to be used for medium to heavy duty applications support a substantial weight. The main difference between these and ball bearings is that roller bearings have a larger contact area to that of ball bearings – this means that they can support a heavier load but operate at lower speeds.