The thrust roller bearings, roller, and cage assemblies rest between the raceway rings. Spherical thrust roller bearings rely on convex rollers and have a self-aligning capability because of the barrel-shape of the rollers. The bearings consist of one row of rollers and have a larger contact angle.A built-in thrust ball bearing reduces wear from adjacent shaft components, while the needle-roller bearing supports radial loads. Spherical-Roller Bearings Two rows of rollers give these bearings load capacities over five times higher than comparably sized tapered-roller bearings.

NTN needle roller thrust bearings are fitted with a form-stable cage to reliably retain and guide a large number of needle rollers. Needle roller thrust bearings provide a high degree of stiffness within a minimum axial space. In applications where the faces of adjacent machine components can serve as raceways, needle roller thrust bearings take up no more space than a conventional thrust washer.