Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Automatic glassware cleaner concept

Melgar - 23-8-2017 at 22:59

I have an idea for an automatic glassware cleaner, but if I write too much about it in a public forum, then I forever forfeit any rights to patent it.

Would there be much demand for such a device if it were for sale? It'd probably only do residue from organic reactions, although the inorganic residue would be much easier to clean out after it had run. It wouldn't need to be refilled with anything, and could run on the utilities that would serve a typical lab building. It would require installation, but not much more than a dishwasher, although it would be a bit bigger than a dishwasher. There would be a few things it wouldn't be able to handle, but other than high explosives, those things would just cause extra wear and tear on it, and would not cause a catastrophic failure. I can't imagine it'd cost more than typical lab equipment that has to be installed.

This concept may already exist and I don't know about it. How do large rich labs like the ones at pharmaceutical companies clean their glassware?

laserlisa - 24-8-2017 at 02:28

"How do large rich labs like the ones at pharmaceutical companies clean their glassware?"

I think most of the largest companies actually hires designated dishwashing people. I know for a fact that one of them does at least.

Dr.Bob - 12-9-2017 at 17:17

Fisher and VWR and others sell lab dishwasher with lots of tubes sticking up that spray water inside flasks, since most have narrow necks. But they have limits and can break stuff easily. If your idea is about narrow tubes to wash in side flasks, then don't worry about the patent. Other people use ultrasonic bathes, base bathes, and other nasty things for dirty stuff.

We still have a designated dishwashing person as well, had lots of them at the previous place. But they did have some machines for the simple stuff. Also tools for washing pipettes and other odd things. If anyone needs a pipette cleaner (tall, narrow wash thingee), I have a few to get rid of.

VSEPR_VOID - 7-10-2017 at 02:20

Quote: Originally posted by Dr.Bob  
Fisher and VWR and others sell lab dishwasher with lots of tubes sticking up that spray water inside flasks, since most have narrow necks. But they have limits and can break stuff easily. If your idea is about narrow tubes to wash in side flasks, then don't worry about the patent. Other people use ultrasonic bathes, base bathes, and other nasty things for dirty stuff.

We still have a designated dishwashing person as well, had lots of them at the previous place. But they did have some machines for the simple stuff. Also tools for washing pipettes and other odd things. If anyone needs a pipette cleaner (tall, narrow wash thingee), I have a few to get rid of.


Labs I have worked in disposed of their used pipettes as either regular waste or biological waste depending on what we were doing with them.

CRUSTY - 13-10-2017 at 09:31

"Automatic glassware cleaner" usually means dishwasher. Unless you've got some sort of specialized and unique design, I'm pretty sure that field has been pretty much exhausted. A quick look at Google Patents shows there are many patents on things like this (eg. US3070104). Light-based (usually UV) cleaners are pretty common too, especially for lab goggles, if that's what you were hinting at, and many more that aren't based on light exposure but rather incorporate it.