Abstract: Plates destined to receive frozen dinners on them are washed automatically by apparatus which receives a train of horizontal plates, tilts the plates progressively upwardly to a more upright position as they move along a conveyor, applies sprays of cleaning and rinsing materials to them and dries them with warm air while they are moving along in that more upright position, and then progressively tilts the plates back to their horizontal positions as they continue to move along the conveyor. The tilting of the plates is accomplished by means of a twisted track serving as a guide along which the plates slide in response to moving belts frictionally engaging both sides of each plate as the plate executes its upwardly and downwardly tilting motions.