Radial spherical plain bearings have an inner ring with a sphered convex outside surface and an outer ring with a correspondingly sphered but concave inside surface. Their design makes them particularly suitable for bearing arrangements where alignment movements between shaft and housing have to be accommodated, or where oscillating or recurrent tilting or slewing movements must be permitted at relatively slow sliding speeds. They are available with different sliding contact surface combinations, i.e. the sliding surfaces of inner and outer rings are made from different materials. There are two main groups: spherical plain bearings requiring maintenance (steel-on-steel) and maintenance-free spherical plain bearings.

The radial spherical plain bearings requiring maintenance (steel-on-steel) have hardened sliding contact surface on both rings. The surfaces are treated with molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) lubrication and a phosphate coating. They have both wear and corrosion resistant characteristics. Bearings with this sliding contact surface combination require regular relubrication. The high strength of the sliding contact surfaces makes these bearings especially suitable for bearing arrangements where heavy loads of alternating direction, shock loads or heavy static loads have to be accommodated.