Agitator (device)

The "straight-vane" is a one-part agitator with bottom and side fins that usually turns back and forth.

The modern agitator, which is dual-action, was first made in Kenmore Appliances washing machines in the 1980s to present.

This is a device formed by a metallic bar (called the agitation bar) which is normally covered by a plastic layer, and a sheet that has underneath it a rotatory magnet or a series of electromagnets arranged in a circular form to create a magnetic rotatory field.

The container must be placed on the sheet, so that the magnetic field influences the agitation bar and makes it rotate.

It is composed of a series of clasps attached to motorised bars, that rock the specimens of platelets gently back-and-forth.