What is the difference between a ball bearing and a roller bearing?

In our daily life, we can see many bearings in mechanic devices. You may want to know what is the difference between ball bearings and roller bearings.
Difference between ball bearings and roller bearings
They are different in following aspects such as load, features, speed, as well as structure. Ball bearings use balls as rotation element while roller bearings use rollers as rotation element.
Ball bearings are making use of hardened spherical balls that can handle both radial as well as thrust loads. They are made use of where the load is relatively small. In the case of ball bearings, the load is transmitted from the outer race to the balls and then from the balls to the inner race. Because the bearings are spherical, there is very small area of contact with the load. Thus when the load is high, the balls may get deformed ruining the bearing.
Roller bearings are used in applications where large load is to be borne, for example in conveyor belts where rollers must bear heavy radial loads. As the name implies, the roller is not a sphere but cylindrical in shape so that contact between the outer and inner race is not a point but a straight line. Thus there is a greater contact than ball bearings and the load is spread out over a larger area allowing roller bearings to bear a much heavier load than ball bearings. One variation of roller bearings is known as needle bearings where the diameter of the cylinders is very small.


How to choose proper bearings from the two types?
When it comes to selecting the right bearings for the drawer slides on the drawers in your home, there are a number of options that work, but some choices are better than others. The ideal option for your drawers would be wooden ball bearings, with metal ball bearings serving as a sufficient substitute in some cases. While other bearing types are available for drawer slides, such as plastic roller bearings, they are not as smooth or reliable as wooden and metal ball bearings.
FAG Bearings.cc provides authentic branding bearings such as Sweden SKF Bearing, Germany FAG and INA Bearing, Japan NSK Bearing, Japan NTN  Bearing, Japan IKO Bearing,Japan KOYO Bearing,Japan NACHI Bearing and America  TIMEKN Bearing ,etc. If you are bothering about how to select a suitable ball bearing, please feel free to contact and get a quote.
Related Posts:
How to store SKF bearings 
Tips on Maintenance of SKF bearings