As the definition of the direction of rotation of a motor as left-hand or right-hand depends on which side the motor is viewed from, there is a guideline for this. The DIN EN 60034-8 guideline VDE 0530-82014-10 Rotating electrical machines deals with connection designations and the direction of rotation in Part 8. Although the DIN standard relates to electrical machines, the principle can be applied to all rotating machines.

The first step is to define the viewing direction. The viewing direction is:

• on the side emitting the force or.
• to the side with a view of the drive shaft end.

With two shaft ends, the direction of view is

• the side with the larger shaft diameter or.
• the side on which no ventilation etc. is fitted if both shaft ends have the same diameter.

The direction of rotation can now be described as follows:

• Left-hand drive, counterclockwise
• Right-handed, clockwise.

With PTM ATEX agitator technology, all motors, drives and complete agitators are left-handed as standard, i.e. with an anti-clockwise direction of rotation. The direction of rotation can be changed to clockwise on request.