The contact angle is shown for an angular contact bearing with nominal contact angle of 20°. In the load zone the contact angles of inner and outer race are almost equal, but there is a big difference opposite to the load zone because of the centrifugal load.
The extension of the contact ellipsis is shown with the dotted lines, so we have a wide contact ellipsis at 0° and a smaller one at 180°. The contact angle corresponding to the shoulder is shown as dashed straight line at the top, so the shoulder is high enough in this case.
