The designations of most rolling bearings follow a designation system. The complete bearing designation may consist of a basic designation with or without one or more supplementary prefixes and suffixes (diagram 1). The basic designation identifies:

diagram 1 - Designations for rolling bearings

the bearing type

the basic design
the boundary dimensions
Prefixes and suffixes identify design features or bearing components.

Basic designations

A basic designation typically contains three to five digits. The basic designation system is shown in table 1. The number and letter combinations have the following meaning:

 table 1 - Basic designation system for standard metric ball and roller bearings

Code   Code

0       Double row angular contact ball bearing

1       Self-aligning ball bearing

2       Spherical roller bearing, spherical roller thrust bearing

3       Tapered roller bearing

4       Double row deep groove ball bearing

5       Thrust ball bearing

6       Single row deep groove ball bearing

7       Single row angular contact ball bearing

8       Cylindrical roller thrust bearing

C       CARB toroidal roller bearing

N     Cylindrical roller bearing. Two or more letters are used to identify the number of the rows or the configuration of the flanges, e.g. NJ, NU, NUP, NN, NNU, NNCF

QJ     Four-point contact ball bearing

T       Tapered roller bearing

in accordance with ISO 355

The first digit or letter or combination of letters identifies the bearing type and eventually a basic variant.
The following two digits identify the ISO dimension series. The first digit indicates the width or height series (dimensions B, T or H). The second digit identifies the diameter series (dimension D).
The last two digits of the basic designation identify the size code of the bearing bore. The size code multiplied by 5 gives the bore diameter (d) in mm.

The most important exceptions in the basic bearing designation system are:

1. In a few cases the digit for the bearing type or the first digit of the dimension series identification is omitted. These digits are shown in brackets in table 1.

2.  Bearings with a bore diameter of 10, 12, 15 or 17 mm have the following size code identifications:

00 = 10 mm
01 = 12 mm
02 = 15 mm
03 = 17 mm
3.  For bearings with a bore diameter < 10 mm, or ≥ 500 mm, the bore diameter is generally given in millimetres (uncoded). The size identification is separated from the rest of the bearing designation by an oblique stroke, e.g. 618/8 (d = 8 mm) or 511/530 (d = 530 mm). This is also true for standard bearings in accordance with ISO 15 that have a bore diameter of 22, 28 or 32 mm, e.g. 62/22 (d = 22 mm).

4.  For some bearings with a bore diameter < 10 mm, such as deep groove, self-aligning and angular contact ball bearings, the bore diameter is also given in millimetres (uncoded) but is not separated from the series designation by an oblique stroke, e.g. 629 or 129 (d = 9 mm).

5.  Bore diameters that deviate from the standard bore diameter of a bearing are uncoded and given in millimetres up to three decimal places. This bore diameter identification is part of the basic designation and is separated from the basic designation by an oblique stroke, e.g. 6202/15.875 (d = 15,875 mm = 5/8 in).

Bearing series
Bearing series designations consist of an identification for the bearing type and the dimension series. The most common series designations are shown in table 1. The digits in brackets belong to the system, but are not used in the series designation in practice.

Prefixes and suffixes

The designations of most rolling bearings follow a system that consists of a basic designation with or without one or more prefixes and/or suffixes, as shown in the table and the examples below.
Prefixes and suffixes provide additional information about the bearing.
Prefixes are mainly used to identify components of a bearing. They can also identify bearing variants.
Suffixes identify designs or variants, which differ in some way from the original design or from the current basic design. The suffixes are divided into groups. When more than one special feature is to be identified, suffixes are provided in the order shown in the table below.
Details of the significance of specific prefixes and suffixes are given in the relevant product sections.

Designation system

                    Prefixes

                    Basic designation

                    Suffix - Internal design

                    Suffix - External design (seals, snap ring groove, etc.)

                    Suffix - Cage design

                    Suffix - Materials, heat treatment

                    Suffix - Materials, heat treatment

                    Suffix - Bearing sets, matched bearings

                    Suffix - Stabilization

                    Suffix - Lubrication

                   Suffix - Lubrication

Bearing designations not covered by the basic system

Insert bearings

The designations for insert bearings differ somewhat from those described in the basic designation system and are covered in the relevant product section.

Needle roller bearings

The designations for needle roller bearings do not fully follow the basic designation system and are covered in the relevant product section.

Tapered roller bearings

The designations for metric tapered roller bearings follow either the basic designation system or a designation system,

Inch tapered roller bearings are designated in accordance with the relevant ANSI/ABMA standard.

Customized bearings

Bearings designed to meet a specific customer requirement are typically designated by a drawing number. T

Other rolling bearings

Bearings not covered under Rolling bearings, such as super-precision bearings, thin section bearings, slewing bearings or linear bearings, follow designation systems that can differ significantly from the basic designation system.