The outer ring of self-aligning ball bearing has sphere raceways, the balls and the cage are allowed to have certain angle of deflect around the bearing center. This enabled the bearings to have self-aligning capability, and to be insensitive to misalignment of mounting shaft. Self-aligning ball bearings are mostly suitable for application where there is expected deflection or misalignment of shaft. Among all rolling bearings, self-aligning ball bearing has the lowest friction factor, which enables it to run cooler even at high speeds. However, self-aligning ball bearings do not accommodate any axial loads.
