A four-point ball bearing includes: an inner ring and an outer ring defining raceway grooves, respectively. Each of the raceway grooves is constituted by two circular arcs different in curvature provided on opposite sides of a widthwise center of the raceway groove. A plurality of balls are arranged between the inner and outer rings so that the balls can roll. In at least one of the raceway grooves, a center of curvature of one of the circular arcs and a center of curvature of the other circular arc are displaced from each other at least in a radial direction so that spin is generated in each of the balls.

Four-point contact ball bearings are radial single row angular contact ball bearings with raceways that are designed to support axial loads acting in both directions. Radial loads can be supported up to a certain fraction of the axial load. These bearings take up considerably less axial space than double row bearings.

SKF four-point contact ball bearings of the QJ design have a contact angle of either 35° or 45°. The inner ring is split. This enables a large number of balls to be incorporated in the bearing thus giving the bearing high load carrying capacity. The bearings are of separable design, i.e. the outer ring with ball and cage assembly can be mounted separately from the two inner ring halves.

Both inner ring halves of SKF Explorer four-point contact ball bearings have a recessed shoulder . This improves the oil flow when the bearing is used together with an SKF cylindrical roller bearing . In addition, these recesses can be used to facilitate dismounting..