Self-aligning ball bearings have two rows of balls, a common sphered raceway in the outer ring and two deep uninterrupted raceway grooves in the inner ring. They are available open or sealed. The bearings are insensitive to angular misalignment of the shaft relative to the housing , which can be caused, for example, by shaft deflection.In a self-aligning bearing, the inner ring has two raceways and the outer ring has a single spherical raceway with its center of curvature coincident with the bearing axis. This allows the axis of the inner ring, balls and cage to deflect around the bearing center to automatically correct misalignment caused by housing and shaft machining or installation error.

Self-aligning Ball Bearings are particularly suitable for applications where misalignment occurs from errors in mounting or from shaft deflection. This bearing should only be used in light axial load applications due to the small axial capacity.