Tandem arrangement

In a tandem arrangement, two or more angular contact or tapered roller bearings are mounted in the same orientation so their pressure lines run parallel and all bearings act in the same axial direction. The set behaves like a single angular contact bearing with increased capacity.

Its purpose is to share high axial loads across several bearings; even load distribution requires factory-matched sets (e.g. suffix DT), which must not be improvised from individual bearings. Since a tandem group supports axial load in one direction only, it always needs an opposing bearing, often a third bearing in back-to-back or face-to-face orientation. Typical uses include worm gears and spindles with predominantly unidirectional thrust.