For miniature bearings, single-row deep groove radial ball bearings are the most common type of miniature bearings, having a wide range of suitable applications. The raceway grooves on both inner and outer rings have circular arcs of slightly larger radius than that of the balls. In addition to radial loads, axial loads can be applied in either direction. Because of their low torque, they offer high speed operation with low power loss.
Miniature bearings and instrument radial ball bearings are made with very high levels of precision, therefore these are generally used in applications where accurate rotational performance and low torque is necessary, and load capacity is a secondary issue.