If I wanted to wash 10,000 identical plastic or glass cups a day, would I use a regular dishwasher or a specialised product designed to work with those specific cups.
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And designed to work with the remains of the contents... – Solar Mike Apr 30 '18 at 14:47
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If you are talking regular drinking cups, this would make it one of the largest food service operations on earth. (I washed dishes at a college that had 35,000 students, and the biggest cafeteria didn't do that many. It was the biggest cafeteria in the state.) Standard equipment will handle them just fine, but they get loaded into racks before being run through the machines. Getting the racks exactly right would seem worth the effort. The glasses are stored in the same stackable racks. – Phil Sweet May 01 '18 at 02:24
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The only reason I can think of to use a special machine for glasses is if you are going to go to the trouble of reclaiming the rinse water for use in prewash cycles of the dish and pot machines (known as multistaging). Saving water, hot water, and reclaiming water are certainly areas to look at saving money. You are looking at up to $7500/yr just to *heat* the water if you are using 4 gal/rack. If a special machine can cut that to 1 gal/rack, which seems reasonable, you would be doing pretty good. – Phil Sweet May 01 '18 at 02:39
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This is not an engineering problem. It's an Economics problem. Compare the cost of a specialized machine, including maintenance and all that, vs. the cost of unskilled labor to perform the work manually. Pick the cheaper option.
Carl Witthoft
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If you mean by "regular" dishwasher, a unit designed for home use, it seems impractical to consider that device.
Commercial dish washing equipment can handle high volume cleaning and are used in large food service establishments such as restaurants. I viewed a television show recently that showed both fixed military bases and federal prisons using large capacity dish washing machines.
The conveyor is loaded with the dishes to be cleaned. The conveyor has pins or panels upon which the dishes are placed. This ensures proper angles for the wash water to clean correctly.
As Solar Mike suggests, such machinery will also dispose of the waste water, as well as dry the dishes, which have to be removed from the conveyor at the exit.
Based on your previous question posted, I suspect these glass cups are not identical, but the difference is inconsequential in this context.
fred_dot_u
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