Tapered roller bearing cones and assemblies with a double row design can have three basic arrangements. The face-to-face (TDI) configuration joins the load lines toward the axis, the back-to-back (TDO) configuration separates the load lines toward the axis, and the tandem configuration sets the load lines parallel to one another.

Tapered roller bearing cups are part of a tapered roller bearing assembly. The assembly contains a tapered inner ring, cylindrical rolling elements, and a tapered outer ring. The tapered outer ring is referred to as the cup and can be separated from the inner ring and rolling elements.