Angular contact ball thrust bearings 2A-BST series are designed to accommodate both radial and thrust loads with their large thrust carrying capacity being the primary design feature. These bearings are inch series and typically have an angle of contact around 50 degrees.They consist of hardened and ground angular contact plates with dowel pin holes for mounting and a brass cage with precision balls. The single ball path AB series can handle thrust load in one direction only. Largely used at the bottom of vertical shaft applications, this design accommodates large thrust loads while providing center alignment for the shaft. Specific applications are indexing tables and oilfield rotary tables.

Angular contact thrust ball bearings are separable, i.e. the washers and ball and cage assemblies can be mounted independently. Although originally designed to support the rotary tables of drilling rigs, they are also suitable for other applications where high axial stiffness and high-speed performance is necessary with low friction. They are available in a single-direction (single row) or double direction (double row) execution depending on the thrust present.