Patent ID: 7017841

Claim:
A method for protecting a grinding mill, at startup from a gravity-balanced condition thereof, including a rotatable mill drum used for grinding material from damages potentially caused by a lumped volume of said material falling from a fall position within said mill drum and impacting an impact position within said mill drum upon rotation thereof at startup from the gravity-balanced condition, said mill drum being coupled to a torque provider able to generate a driving torque for rotating said mill drum, said method comprising the steps of: assessing a presence of a potentially damaging lumped volume of said material in said mill drum by evaluating if said material within said mill drum is tumbling in a cascading flow upon rotation of said mill drum at startup from the gravity-balanced condition; initiating an action for stopping the rotation of said mill drum upon determination that said material within said mill drum is not tumbling in said cascading flow under the presence of said potentially damaging lumped volume of said material.