Sleeve bearings (sometimes called bushings, journal bearings or plain bearings) facilitate linear movement between two parts. Sleeve bearings consist of a metal, plastic or fiber-reinforced composite sleeves that reduce vibrations and noise by absorbing friction between two moving parts using a sliding motion.

Sleeve bearings offer several advantages, including lower cost, less maintenance, greatly reduce noise at low speeds and easier installation. Sleeve bearing performance is also marked by a higher load capacity, especially shock load resistance due to their greater contact zone. Sleeve bearings with a conformal liner compensate for misalignment issues and vibration damping, these one-piece design low-friction bearings reduce housing dimensions and weight by having a thin wall section.