Thrust cylindrical roller bearings and thrust tapered roller bearings are suitable for low speed applications. The speed of thrust tapered roller bearings is slightly higher than that of thrust cylindrical roller bearings. Thrust cylindrical roller bearings are separable bearings that can only withstand unidirectional axial loads and slight impacts. They can limit the axial displacement of the shaft (or housing) in one direction, so they can be used for unidirectional axial positioning. However, their load-bearing capacity is much greater than that of thrust ball bearings. When the rollers roll, the rollers inevitably slide on the raceway of ring due to the different linear speeds at both ends of the rollers. Therefore, the limiting speed of such bearings is lower than that of thrust ball bearings, and they are usually only suitable for low-speed operation.
The standard design of thrust cylindrical roller bearings uses machined metal solid cages. According to user requirements, other types or materials of cages can also be used. Thrust tapered roller bearings can only bear unidirectional axial loads and can limit the unidirectional axial displacement of the bearing, so they can be used for unidirectional axial positioning. Compared with thrust cylindrical roller bearings, they have greater load capacity and less relative sliding, but lower limiting speed.