FCB Horomill®, since 1995
Step into The story of the FCB Horomill®
A history of innovation, performance and partnerships
Through this dedicated page, we invite you to discover the story behind the FCB Horomill®, by exploring exclusive contents from our book, ahead of the public release of the complete edition.
This project was born out of a deep desire: to preserve and document the development of an innovation that has transformed our industry, and to share a human journey driven by the partnerships that shaped it. Through testimonials from our teams and our clients’ success stories, this book traces the key milestones, technical challenges, and strategic decisions that led to the deployment of this technology.
Stay tuned to learn more about the key chapters of this story, and request your printed copy by completing the form.
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Chapter 1 - 1991-1994: A revolution in grinding technology read the first chapter
Chapter 2 - 1994-2001: A series of firsts
A series of firsts
The history of the FCB Horomill® is marked by a series of firsts that helped transform significantly the cement grinding market.
From the commissioning of the first industrial-scale unit in France in, each milestone demonstrated the robustness and reliability of the technology. Early adopters played a key role, validating performance and cement quality while helping to build confidence across the industry.
The rise of a game-changing technology
After successful implementations in Italy, Mexico and Turkey, the technology expanded into Asia, while continuing to grow in Europe supported by strong customer confidence and repeat orders.
At the same time, we focused on optimizing the mechanical design. A dedicated task force was mobilized to analyze feedback and identify potential improvements based on customer experience.
With a more robust, high-performance technology, tested across an increasingly wide range of applications, Fives FCB was ready to move to the industrial scale-up stage.
Customer Success // more stories
LAFARGE ZEMENT
Karsdorf plant – Karsdorf, Germany
“We were impressed by the versatility of the FCB Horomill®, which perfectly matched our multi-product portfolio with our sales requirements. The FCB Horomill® has fulfilled this objective since its installation.”
Stefan Fiedler, Investment Director, thomas zement GmbH
Challenge
Lafarge Zement (now thomas zement GmbH) needed a grinding plant that could produce sevent different products, including pure limestone, pure slag, Ordinary Portland Cement, and 70% slag cement.
Response
Fives adapted the hydraulic design of both the FCB Horomill® and the classification system to handle the raw materials' different grindabilities and the broad fineness spectrum.
Result
The Karsdorf plant has proven able to produce not only blended cement, but pure limestone meal over 8,000 cm²/g and pure slag meal over 4,500 cm²/g.
Added value
Its stable automated operation capabilities and short residence time can easily handle the seven different product recipes and switch several times daily, ensuring continuous optimized operating conditions no matter the recipe.
Insider testimonies
Timeline of a success
Success Stories and partnerships
Customer Success //
FRATELLI BUZZI
Trino – Trino, Italy
“I consider the Trino Horomill® prototype to be an adopted brother. I remember well in September 1993, at the VDZ International Congress in Düsseldorf, my father Sandro proudly presented the mill's first results by saying, ‘A new baby is born!’ That machine was truly a technological breakthrough and immediately attracted great interest.
That baby has come a long way. It has been used to test the grinding of all possible materials in our sector and has enabled the develoment of its numerous older siblings that we have in operation in many of our factories.”Luigi Buzzi, Executive Director, Chief Technology Officer, Buzzi S.p.A.
Fratelli Buzzi (now Buzzi Unicem) was convinced there was a better way to grind cement than the traditional ball mill or other initial-stage roller mill methods. They believed it was possible to create an innovative grinding process using centrifugation, which could be installed at its cement-producing facilities.
Fives designed and tested a pilot mill before jumping to an industrial prototype by partnering with Fratelli Buzzi to design and build a 2200 mm prototype at the Trino plant.
Thanks to the close collaboration of the two teams, the FCB Horomill® was born. The cement quality matched Fratelli Buzzi’s needs, and energy savings were high. With this ¤rst success, Fives would launch into a long-term relationship with Fratelli Buzzi, which has continued to order FCB Horomill® grinding mills over the 30 years since the first order.
Decades of collaboration between Fives and Fratelli Buzzi have led to countless operational successes to the mutual bene¤t of both groups.
Customer Success //
ÇIMENTAŞ
Izmir plant – Izmir, Turkey
Turkey experienced a booming construction environment in the 1990s, but electricity prices were high. Çimentaş thus needed to increase cement production at its Izmir grinding plant in an energy-friendly way in comparison to its existing plants.
Fives installed and started up its largest grinding plant to date, the FCB Horomill® 3400, with a 3.4 m shell diameter.
The FCB Horomill® handled grinding for both Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and Pozzolanic cement, the latter of which was composed of 30% trass. Compared with a traditional ball mill, the cement production saw 35-50% energy savings.
Thanks to its stable automated operation capabilities and short residence time, the plant could switch from one product to the other within 10 minutes without requiring plant stoppage.
Customer Success //
CEMENTOS MOCTEZUMA
Tepetzingo plant – Tepetzingo, Mexico
“We were proud to be the first manufacturer in the Americas to install an FCB Horomill® and the first to rely on such a machine for the entire process within a greenfield plant. Beyond its innovative technical concepts and lowest electrical energy consumption,the FCB Horomill® has the exceptional advantage to propose the same design for raw and cement grinding.”
Giovanni Battista Auxilia, Director, Engineering & Projects (2004-2024), Buzzi Unicem
Cementos Moctezuma wanted its first cement plant to be more effcient than other plants running at the time in Mexico.
Convinced by the performance achieved at Fratelli Buzzi’s Trino plant, Cementos Moctezuma selected Fives to supply two large 3800 FCB Horomill® mills for both raw and cement grinding.
The Cementos Moctezuma plant achieved its objective: it became the most effcient plant in Mexico, with the lowest electrical energy consumption.
The identical machines could both use the same replacement parts when needed, meaning that Cementos Moctezuma could keep fewer items in stock. Additionally, operational and maintenance teams only needed to learn how to work on one machine, since the other was its twin.
