what are Self-aligning ball bearings?

Double row self-aligning ball bearings have a sphere raceway in the outer ring and a double raceway in the inner ring. This feature give the bearings their self-aligning property, permitting angular misalignment of the shaft relative to the housing. self aligning ball bearings are therefore particularly suitable for applications where misalignment can arise from errors in mounting or from shaft deflection.

With two structures of bore cylindrical or tapered and retainers made of steel sheet or synthetic resins, the bearings are characteristic of their spherically formed outer ring raceways allowing for misalignment within 3 degree deflection between inner ring and outer ring, so as to compensate concentricity and deflection errors.

The self aligning ball bearings are applicable for occasions with sizable shaft flexion or shaft disalignment , such as the transmission shaft of precision meter, quiet motor, car, motorcycle, woodworker and textile machinery. It can also be applied on mining machine, electromechanical device, plastics machinery, office device, medical appliance, body-building and sports goods, and common machine etc. It is one of the bearings most widely used in machinery industry.