Bearings provide the wonderful glue that keeps most engines and mechanical assemblies working, particularly with activities that involve high-speed rotation. There are different types of bearings available, and one of the most common remains the roller bearing.
Roller bearings are used in the machine and production industries when two planes need to move against each other with the least amount of friction possible. They differ from ball bearings, as they are contained within a form of housing and may or may not bet spherical. Roller bearings come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes but generally fall into one of three categories: cylindrical, spherical and tapered.
Cylindrical
Cylindrical roller bearings are perhaps one of the most familiar and common forms of roller bearing. The basic design is a pair of rings with bearings between. These bearings may be spherical in shape but typically are cylindrical. Cylinders allow for the width of the bearing to be larger than what would be possible with a ball bearing alone. These types of roller bearings can handle a large radial load and moderate amount of thrust since the load is distributed across cylinders instead of spheres. They are commonly used for applications where an object needs to slide along in a plane.
Shperical
Spherical roller bearings are similar in construction to a cylindrical roller bearing except that they often lack an inner ring and the entire construction is warped in such a way that they wrap or caress a round object. These types of roller bearings are used in applications where a round object needs to spin around its axis. Because spherical roller bearings are designed to hug a sphere, they tend to be self-aligning.
