The two-way thrust ball bearing includes a shaft ring, two races, and two steel ball-retainer assemblies. The bearing is separable, with each component installable independently. The two-way bearing shares the same shaft ring, races, and steel ball-retainer assemblies with the one-way bearing.

A unidirectional thrust bearing typically consists of a row of steel balls (with retainers), a shaft collar (tightly fitting on the shaft), and a housing ring. The housing ring has a clearance with the shaft and a tight fit with the bearing housing bore. Its steel balls rotate between the shaft collar and housing ring. Primarily, it can only withstand axial loads in one direction and cannot bear radial loads. Since the axial load is uniformly distributed over each ball, the unidirectional flat thrust ball bearing has a considerable load capacity. However, due to its significant temperature rise during operation, the allowable maximum speed is not high.