By virtue of its internal geometry, the self-aligning ball bearing is capable of accommodating small angular misalignments between the shaft and housing. This is achieved by using two rows of balls that run in parallel inner ring raceways and a full width, spherical outer ring raceway.
Caution must be exercised when thrust loads have to be accommodated as these bearings have very little axial load carrying capacity.
A tapered bore for mounting using an adapter sleeve is common and, as such, these bearings can be used in place of spherical roller bearings in plummer block applications.
NSK can supply a range of self-aligning ball bearings in metric and inch sizes from 5mm to 130mm bore.
