Patent ID: 7503515

Claim:
An apparatus for parallel grinding of materials, the apparatus comprising four or more spatially discrete apertures or wells arranged in a generally planar array, each of the four or more apertures or wells defining a grinding zone having an interior grinding surface, grinding balls adapted for impacting motion within the four or more grinding zones and being adapted for grinding materials residing in one of the four or more grinding zones, one or more primary sieves defining at least a portion of the interior grinding surface for each of the four or more grinding zones, the one or more primary sieves being adapted to simultaneously sieve each of the four or more materials as they are being ground, such that for each of the four or more materials, smaller, primary-sieved particles pass through the primary sieve whereas larger, unsieved particles are retained in the grinding zone for further grinding, and wherein the grinding zones are in a grinder body and said apertures or wells have vertical longitudinal axes and extend generally vertically down from an upper surface of the grinder body.