Patent ID: 7213423

Claim:
A washing machine, comprising: a wash shaft installed perpendicularly at a lower center of a rotatable inner tub, and rotated by a rotational force transferred from a motor; a wash plate orbiting about a rotational center of the wash shaft to form a stream of water; and a movement converting unit for converting a rotational movement of the wash shaft to an orbiting movement of the wash plate, wherein said movement converting unit comprises: a base having an eccentric shaft formed in an upper portion thereof, said eccentric shaft being coupled to said wash plate and a lower portion of said base being coupled to said wash shaft, wherein the eccentric shaft is fixed relative to the wash shaft, and wherein a rotational axis of the eccentric shaft is parallel to and offset from a rotational axis of the wash shaft; and a counterweight mounted on the base such that the counterweight substantially corrects for an imbalance in the weights of the base and the wash plate.