Spherical roller bearings are designed for high radial loads and medium speeds.
Spherical roller bearings have one or two rows of barrel-shaped rollers between the inner ring, which has two raceways, and the outer ring, which has one spherical raceway.
Since the centre of curvature of the outer ring raceway surface coincides with the bearing axis, they are self-aligning in a manner similar to self-aligning ball bearings. Therefore, shaft or housing deflection, or misalignment of their axes, is automatically corrected.
Bearing efficiency is greatly influenced by the geometry of rolling elements, raceways and cages, heat treatment and also the surface quality of the raceways.
The most commonly used spherical roller bearings are the double-row type.