These bearings have balls enclosed in a cage between the shaft raceway washer that corresponds to the inner ring, and the housing raceway washer that corresponds to the outer ring. They can bear only single-direction axial loads.

These are used in back-to-back duplex (DF) arrangement and can support only bi-directional axial loads. They are superior to double-direction thrust angular ball bearings in high-speed properties, with low axial rigidity.

Most rolling bearings consist of bearing rings (an inner ring and an outer ring), rolling elements and a rolling element retainer (cage). The retainer separates the rolling elements at regular intervals, holds them in place within the inner and outer raceways, and allows them to rotate freely. Rolling bearings fall into two main classifications: ball bearings and roller bearings. Balls geometrically contact the raceway surfaces of the inner and outer rings at “points,” while the contact surface of rollers is a “line” contact. Rollers come in four basic geometric styles: cylindrical, needle, tapered and spherical. Rolling bearings can further be classified according to the direction in which the load is applied: radial, thrust, or a combination of both. While the rolling elements and the bearing rings take any load applied to the bearings (at the contact point between the rolling elements and raceway surfaces), the retainer takes no direct load. It only serves to hold the rolling elements at equal distances from each other, forcing the rolling elements to enter the load zones and prevent them from falling out.