The chuck cannot lie flat. Now what? A 4th-axis job, a tombstone, or a tall fixture puts the datum face on its side instead of pointing up. Two of the listed pneumatic bodies are built around that problem.
One is the side-vertical NT-S100P100RV2. The other is the right-angle NT-S100P100RV3. The usual instinct is to open the spec table and compare clamping force.
Here that does not help. Both list a minimum of 6,000 N. Both list return accuracy closer than 0.003 mm — how close the chuck comes back to the same spot after you unclamp, lift the holder off, and put it back. Suppliers often call that reseat.
Both also take the same spigot: the matched plug that the chuck pulls in and locates on. What splits these two is weight and shape.
Short version:
Take the side-vertical body when you need one datum face turned on its side and you want to keep weight down. Take the right-angle body when you need reach around several faces from one mounting point and the machine can carry 18 kg of chuck. Check the approved drawing before you order either one.
The spec table will not pick for you
Here is the listed R-Series range, in the order it appears on the catalogue page.
Values come from the current R-Series product page. Confirm the selected model drawing before you freeze a mounting plan.
| Model | Listed format | Listed clamp | Listed return accuracy or indexing | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NT-S100P150RV1 | Powerful pneumatic | >10,000 N | <0.003 mm | 18 kg |
| NT-S100P100RV2 | Side vertical pneumatic | >6,000 N | <0.003 mm | 6.3 kg |
| NT-S100P100RV1 | Standard pneumatic | >6,000 N | <0.003 mm | 5 kg |
| NT-S100P100RV3 | Right-angle pneumatic | >6,000 N | <0.003 mm | 18 kg |
| NT-S100P56RV1 | Manual | Hand quick-change, no air | 2–4 × 90° fixed indexing | 0.8 kg |
Read the three P100 rows again. The clamp figure matches, the return figure matches, and one spigot, NT-S100P57RV1, fits all three. The weights run 5 kg, 6.3 kg, and 18 kg.
The listed clamp figure does not separate these two, then. What does is where the datum face has to point, and what the extra metal costs you on the machine.
Both figures are limits, not measurements of your job. The figure under 0.003 mm describes the chuck returning to itself, under conditions NEXTAS does not publish, and the reseat guide covers what a figure like that does and does not prove about a finished part. The clamp figure is a listed minimum, not approval for a named cut on a named part.
Look at the foot, not the face
Both bodies turn the datum. The catalogue describes them doing it for different reasons.
The side-vertical entry is written around compact four-side interchange and side-oriented installation. The variants sheet calls the same idea a side-mount layout for vertical setups and 4th-axis work. Picture one round chuck stood up on a foot.
The right-angle entry is written around fixture access, multi-axis orientation, and five-face reach. The variants sheet adds tight axis configurations and compact tombstone setups. Picture a block instead of a disc on a foot.
Neither render is marked RV2 or RV3. Both show arrangements built around the standard chuck marking, which means you cannot identify the body you are quoting from a picture.
You can use the pictures to agree on a shape with a colleague, and nothing more. Face count, bolt pattern, and bore depth come off the approved drawing.
What you can decide without a drawing is the question you are asking. Do you need one datum turned on its side? Or do you need reach around several faces from one mounting point? The first points at the side-vertical entry. The second points at the right-angle entry.
What 18 kg actually buys
Two models in the table weigh 18 kg, and the catalogue does not list them for the same reason.
| Model at 18 kg | What the catalogue lists it for | Listed clamp |
|---|---|---|
| NT-S100P100RV3 | Access and multi-axis orientation | >6,000 N |
| NT-S100P150RV1 | Heavy roughing and large workpiece footprints | >10,000 N |
So if you are about to add 18 kg, decide what you are buying with it. Access, or grip. NEXTAS does not publish where the metal goes in either body, so pick from what each one is listed for. Paying 18 kg for an access body and then bolting the job to one flat face is the expensive mistake here.
Weight matters more once the chuck leaves the flat table. On a rotary axis it is load plus a turning moment about the centreline. On a tombstone it is load hung off a vertical face. Neither is free.
Do the arithmetic on the whole stack, not the chuck alone. The spigot adds 0.15 kg. The positioning plates run 0.15 kg, 0.25 kg, or 1.1 kg by size. Then add your fixture and the heaviest part you plan to run.
That total is your first screen against the payload in the machine manual. It is a screen, not the answer. Where the centre of gravity sits and what moment it makes about the axis matter as much, and so do stack imbalance and axis acceleration. Take those four to your machine builder; the mounting and fastener side sits with your fixture designer and whoever does the install.
If any of those limits comes up short, do not jump straight to a bigger axis. Weigh three routes against the documented limits: the 6.3 kg side-vertical body, a lighter fixture or a different process, or machine capacity you have to buy. If the lighter body wins, every listed pneumatic body shares the spigot code NT-S100P57RV1, so that route starts from the same listed interface — put the spigot, holder and mounting drawings side by side before you reuse anything. Moving the job to the 0.8 kg manual chuck is a different trade, and not a free one: the manual family runs on NT-S100P36RV1, so the spigots change with it. The rotary-table guide has the centre-of-gravity method, and the tooling-column guide covers giving each face a job before you load it.
Air on a face that moves
The pneumatic bodies are listed at 0.5 to 0.8 MPa. That is 5 to 8 bar, or roughly 72 to 116 psi, whichever unit your gauges show. The page also lists mechanical self-locking, self-cleaning of the positioning datum, air-tightness testing, and inner-hole cleaning functions.
First, plumbing. Take the port and circuit list off the approved drawing and pneumatic schematic for the model you selected. Do not count hoses from a render, and do not work the count out from the faces you can see. Settle it before you promise anyone a tidy install.
Second, motion. If the chuck rides a rotary axis, the air has to get there while the axis turns. That means a rotary union or a managed hose loop, and it has to clear the swept path at every index position. That is machine-side work. It is not a chuck feature, and it is easy to leave out of a first budget.
On the safety boundary, be careful with wording. Mechanical self-locking is a listed mechanical function. An air-tightness test is a process check. Neither one is a safety-rated function unless your cell safety design says so and someone has validated it. Guarding, stop logic, and recovery still belong to the cell builder.
RV3 does not always mean right angle
This one is easy to get wrong on a purchase order.
NT-S100P100RV3 is the right-angle pneumatic chuck at 18 kg. NT-S100P56RV3 is a manual extension chuck with 10 in of extension, listed at 4,000 N and 2.5 kg. Same RV3 ending. Completely different part.
The spigots split the same way. Pneumatic chucks use NT-S100P57RV1. The manual chuck and the manual extensions use NT-S100P36RV1.
The habit that prevents this: write the complete model code on every line of the enquiry and the order. Never shorten a code to its suffix in an email. If a supplier quotes you a short code, ask them to write it out again in full.
The variants sheet at the top of this article labels the side-vertical body “Lateral.” Same body, different word. Match on the model code, not the label.
When the answer is neither pneumatic body
Sometimes the sideways datum is not on a production machine at all. It is on a presetting bench, an inspection stand, or a station with no air line anywhere near it.
The manual chuck NT-S100P56RV1 weighs 0.8 kg and needs no air. Its listed entry is 2 to 4 × 90° fixed indexing rather than a micron return figure. Fixed indexing and return accuracy are not the same kind of claim, so do not assume the manual family matches the pneumatic number. Ask what it is specified to before you build an inspection route on it.
If the problem is reach rather than orientation, the manual extensions are listed at 6 in and 10 in, both at 4,000 N, at 2 kg and 2.5 kg. Three positioning-plate sizes are listed alongside them, with the largest intended for heavier fixtures and 4-axis or 5-axis work.
NEXTAS describes this split on the product page: pneumatic chucks on the production stations, a manual chuck at the setup bench to prepare and check holders before transfer. Budget for the second spigot family if you run it that way. The bench sits on NT-S100P36RV1 while the machines sit on NT-S100P57RV1, so the two sides do not share one set of spigots.
Prove the orientation before you bolt anything down
A body that fits on paper can still fail on the machine. Work through these before the order, not after delivery.
- Draw the stack outward from the mounting face. Chuck, spigot, plate, fixture, part. Note the height at each step.
- Weigh it, do not estimate it. Put the real total against the axis or table rating.
- Walk the swept path. Index the axis through every position you will use and look for the hoses, not just the metal.
- Load in the real orientation. Testing a sideways job with the chuck lying flat on a bench tells you very little about how it will behave hanging off a face.
- Repeat the cycle. Clamp a master, measure, release, clean, reload. Ten to twenty times, on the station and in the orientation you will run.
- Hold the conditions still. One master, one measuring setup, one clamping pressure, the same assembly every time. Change any of those mid-test and you are measuring your own method, not the chuck.
- Write the limit down first. Agree what shift you will accept and how you will measure it before anyone runs the test.
Record what you find. An install result in your own orientation is worth more to the next project than any catalogue line.
What to send for an R-Series body review
NEXTAS can check the listed body, spigot and positioning-plate selection against what you send. Axis load and moment stay with your machine builder, cell safety with whoever builds the cell, and the cutting process with your process owner. None of those get approved from a page like this.
- The machine: model, and which axis or face the chuck goes on.
- The mounting surface: a photo plus the bolt pattern, or the table drawing.
- The orientation: one sideways datum, or reach around several faces from one mounting point. Say which, and say if you are unsure.
- The load: chuck, spigot, plate, fixture and part mass; how far the job hangs past the mounting face; roughly where the centre of gravity sits; and the payload and moment limits printed in your machine manual.
- Air: the pressure you can hold at the chuck under load, not the reading at the compressor, plus how you plan to get air onto a face that turns.
- Holders: photos of the interface you already run, the chuck, spigot and holder codes if you have them, and any interface drawing.
- Your target: the shift you will accept, and the method you will measure it with.
Write “unknown” on anything you cannot answer yet. An honest blank is easier to quote against than a guess.
NEXTAS is an independent supplier and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by System 3R. That name appears here only to describe an installed holder family a buyer may need to identify.
Questions buyers ask before picking a body
Does the right-angle body clamp harder than the side-vertical body?
No. Both are listed at more than 6,000 N and closer than 0.003 mm reseat. If you need a higher listed clamp on one flat face, the model to look at is NT-S100P150RV1 at more than 10,000 N.
Why is the right-angle body 18 kg when the standard chuck is 5 kg?
Both list more than 6,000 N, so the published clamp figure does not separate them. The right-angle entry is listed for access and multi-axis orientation. NEXTAS publishes the masses and what each body is for, not a breakdown of where the weight goes, so ask for the drawing if you need the exact face layout and bolt pattern.
Is NT-S100P56RV3 a right-angle chuck?
No. It is a manual extension chuck listed at 10 in of extension, 4,000 N and 2.5 kg. The right-angle pneumatic chuck is NT-S100P100RV3. Write the complete code on every order line.
Does mechanical self-locking make an unattended job safe?
No. Self-locking is a listed mechanical function and an air-tightness test is a process check. Neither is a safety-rated function on its own. The cell safety design, guarding, and recovery plan still decide whether a job can run unattended.
Can I put the manual chuck on the bench and pneumatic chucks on the machines?
NEXTAS describes that production-and-bench split on the product page, but it is not one interface. The manual chuck and its extensions are listed against spigot NT-S100P36RV1 while the pneumatic bodies use NT-S100P57RV1, so plan on two spigot sets. The manual chuck is also listed with 2 to 4 × 90° fixed indexing rather than a return-accuracy figure, so ask what it is specified to before you plan an inspection route around it.
Before you write the order line
Tell us where the chuck has to sit and what it has to carry
Say whether you need one sideways datum or reach around several faces, and send the stack mass with a rough centre of gravity. NEXTAS can check the body, spigot and plate selection against it and come back with the open questions for your quotation.
Discuss your R-Series layout