Patent ID: 7014134

Claim:
A continuously operating horizontal stirred ball mill serving for fine and very fine grinding of a material and having a cylindrical or conical grinding chamber ( 50 , 51 ) serving for receiving grinding media, a material inlet ( 37 ) arranged at the end of the grinding chamber ( 50 , 51 ) and opening into the interior ( 3 ) of the grinding chamber ( 50 , 51 ), a material outlet ( 38 , 39 ) arranged at the other end of the grinding chamber and leading out of the interior ( 3 ), and a stirrer ( 1 , 22 ) having a plurality of stirrer members ( 2 ) and coaxial with the chamber axis ( 60 ), and a separately driven separation system which is arranged upstream of the material outlet ( 38 , 39 ) and which separates the grinding media from the ground material and transports them back into the interior ( 3 ) of the grinding chamber ( 50 , 51 ), wherein the separation system is formed from a separation member ( 80 , 82 ) which has two circular disks ( 5 , 7 ) which are arranged coaxially with the chamber axis ( 61 ) and between which is arranged a plurality of conveying or blade elements ( 12 , 86 ) which are symmetrically distributed around the midpoint of the disk, lead inwards away from the disk edge and, during operation of the separation apparatus, generate an opposing pressure on the mixture of material and grinding media, so that, owing to the centrifugal force and the different specific density, the grinding media are separated from the product and transported back into the interior ( 3 ).