A roller bearing is simply a normal bearing but the element inside of the bearing is a roller rather than a ball. There are many different variations of roller bearings such as Cylindrical Roller Bearing, Spherical Roller Thrust Bearings, Cylindrical Roller Bearing, Self - Aligning Roller Bearing, Track Roller, Tapered Roller Bearings, Clutch Bearings, and Needle Roller Bearings. As you can see there are variation upon variation, so many to discuss so little time, but lets take a few and look at them in more detail:

Cylindrical Roller Bearing - Cylindrical roller bearings have high radial-load capacity and moderate thrust loads. The rollers within these types of bearings are cylindrical in shape but are not true cylinders. Rather than being exact cylinders they are crowned to reduce stress concentrations. They are usually made from alloy steels and low carbon steels. Because they create less friction than other bearings they are usually used in high speed applications such as mining equipment, petroleum production, power generation, power transmission, cement processing, aggregate crushing, and metal recycling.

Clutch Bearings – the one way clutch bearing can travel in one direction as the name suggests. They are most commonly used in food machinery, electric motors, agricultural machinery, and printing machinery. The most common application a clutch bearing is found in is in a clutch such as in a car. If you have ever driven a manual car the main operation of the car and motor is that of the clutch where you need to put pressure on the clutch to move the gear and then release pressure.

Tapered Roller Bearings – what do tapered roller bearings look like? They consist of an inner ring called the cone, an outer ring called the cup, a cage called a cage, and the rollers which are spaced out evenly. These types of bearings can carry off heavy axial and radial loads at low and intermediate speeds. What are they made out of? They are usually made from steel and low carbon steels, some applications require the case to be a lot harder and so high carbon steel is used oppose to alloy steel.

Tapered Roller Bearings have been around since the 19th Century, it was in 1898 that a man named Timken patented the idea of this type of bearing and his bearing company became very successful thereafter.