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.

The axial load carrying capacity of tapered roller bearings increases with increasing contact angle α. The size of the contact angle, which is usually between 10° and 30°, is related to the calculation factor e (from the data table): the larger the value of e, the larger the contact angle.