Grinding mill shell liner elements

A cylindrical grinding mill having a plurality of longitudinal metal liners fastened around the interior peripheral wall thereof,

• each of said metal liners having terminal end faces and a grinding surface and being formed of a plurality of segments comprising a first segment, a second segment and at least a third segment,
• each segment having at least one inclined end face, at least one segment following said first segment having both end faces inclined such that the angle between said inclined end faces diverges towards the grinding surface of each of said liners,
• the segments of each of said liners being cooperably longitudinally arranged with the inclined end faces thereof disposed in end-to-end overlapping relationship,
• whereby when each segmented liner secured to the inner peripheral wall of said grinding mill is subjected to the working stresses of grinding media on the grinding surface thereof, the stresses applied to the metal liners result in the generation of a vertical lifting force on at least said segment of each liner having divergent end faces due to linear strain caused by metal flow along each of the liners which aids in the subsequent removal of said segmented liners for maintenance purposes.

A cylindrical grinding mill having a plurality of longitudinal metal liners fastened around the interior peripheral wall thereof,

• each of said metal liners having terminal end faces and a grinding surface and being formed of a plurality of segments comprising a first segment, a second segment and at least a third segment,
• each segment having at least one inclined end face, at least one segment following said first segment having both end faces inclined such that the angle between said inclined end faces diverges towards the grinding surface of each of said liners,
• the segments of each of said liners being cooperably longitudinally arranged with the inclined end faces thereof disposed in end-to-end overlapping relationship,
• each of said liners relative to said grinding mill being characterized longitudinally in profile by a feed end section, an intermediate section, and a discharge section, such that the feed end section is tapered and increases to an optimum thickness as it approaches the intermediate section and maintains said optimum thickness for a predetermined length of said feed section, said intermediate section tapering to a smaller thickness from said optimum thickness, said taper continuing through the discharge section of said liner to a predetermined final thickness,
• whereby when each segmented liner secured to the inner peripheral wall of said grinding mill is subjected to the working stresses of grinding media in the mill on the grinding surface thereof, the stresses applied to the metal liners result in the generation of a vertical lifting force on at least said segment of each liner having divergent end faces due to linear strain caused by metal flow along each of said liners which aids in the subsequent removal of said segmented liners for maintenance purposes.