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 read the second chapter
Chapter 3 - 2001-2011: Ramping up production
In the early 2000s, it was clear that the FCB Horomill® was more than just another grinding solution. It represented a major breakthrough in the market. Already operating in Europe, North America, and Asia, it was proving its effectiveness by delivering significant energy savings compared to ball mills and vertical mills.
Throughout the decade, Fives FCB continued to improve the FCB Horomill® to make it even more efficient, easier to use, and more reliable. Mechanical improvements and process innovations, notably the FCB Aerodecantor and the high-fineness FCB TSV™ Classifier, further improves its performance.
Scaling up… and gaining trust
This decade marked a turning point in the development of the technology :
- Major industrial players placed their trust in the FCB Horomill®
- New plant concepts emerged including twin mills and fully automated installations
- Repeat orders confirmed its operational performance and reliability.
The result was a robust, easy-to-operate grinding solution capable of delivering high-quality cement with lower clinker content and improved sustainability.
Customer Success // more stories
HOLCIM MÉXICO
Hermosillo plant – Sonora, Mexico
“Our Hermosillo site required a grinding solution that would meet criteria specific to the harsh local environment. The FCB Horomill® was our choice because we knew it could achieve a high level of fineness in desert-like conditions.
In addition, the fact we could source a significant amount of the plant equipment from one supplier made Fives' technology the right option.”
José Gama, Plant Director, Holcim México
Challenge
Following Fives’ successful installation of a 3,000 tpd complete, turnkey plant to Holcim Group’s plant at Cartago (Costa Rica), Holcim called on Fives for its affiliate’s new project near Hermosillo (Mexico). The 3,500 tpd greenfield cement plant was being built in an area marked by significant water scarcity.
Response
For the cement grinding section, Fives built not one but three FCB Horomill® 3800 mills in an integrated, compact building. Along with the cement mills, Fives supplied an FCB Off-Line Precalciner and an FCB Rotary Kiln to produce high-quality clinker for the mills with low thermal energy consumption, using alternative fuel, and low NOx emissions.
Result
The unprecedented “triplet” installation of FCB Horomill® grinding mills saw each achieve up to 100 tph production capacity of very high-quality cement. The triplet solution’s grinding process was especially adapted to the desert-like conditions in which the plant was situated and could handle a wide variety of additive materials to reduce clinker content.
Added value
Leveraging the experience and technological knowhow of the entire Fives Group, the project incorporated Fives’ Pillard ROTAFLAM® multichannel burners and Fives Solios TGT® technology for common kiln, raw mill and cooler gas filtering.
Insider testimonies
Timeline of a success
Success Stories and partnerships
Customer Success //
VIETNAM
Vinaincon's Thai Nguyen and Vinaconex's Cam Pha grinding plants - Vietnam
“Our main plant at Cam Pha wasn't yet in operation at the time of commissioning, so we had to import foreign clinker for the performance tests. Despite the variations in clinker quality, the FCB Horomill® performed great. It achieved the numbers we needed in terms of production rate, cement quality and energy consumption.”
Lê Quang Uyên Phương - Director, Southern Branch, Cam Pha cement JSC
State-owned construction company Vinaincon was looking to build a new cement plant, near Thai Nguyen in northern Vietnam. Vinaincon needed two cement grinding mills to achieve the intended capacity for this green eld cement plant. Meanwhile, Vinaconex needed to boost its Cam Pha Cement company production capacity to 1.8 million tpy. In this framework, Vinaconex decided to build a new separate grinding plant in the south, near Ho Chi Minh City. Both needed a trusted partner and proven leader in the cement industry who could scale up a solution combining low footprint with reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
Fives came up with an innovative concept to meet these needs. It developed a fi rst-of-its-kind twin mill concept: two FCB Horomill® machines using a common gas and selection circuit, with one FCB TSVTM Classifi er 6500 HF and one fillter, along with one feeding system.
The compact structure of the twin FCB Horomill® system enabled a reduction in investment costs for both companies compared to standalone workshops. It also provided high flexibility in terms of production and
maintenance. The system further reduced investment cost by requiring a minimum of spare parts. On each of the sites, the two customers achieved production capacity of over 240 tph.
When one of the twin mills needed to undergo maintenance, the other could still be used, preserving the same high level of product quality.
Customer Success //
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
Lafarge Zement (now thomas zement GmbH) needed a grinding plant that could produce seven different products, including pure limestone, pure slag, Ordinary Portland Cement, and 70% slag cement.
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.
The Karsdorf plant has proven able to produce not only blended cements, but pure limestone meal over 8,000 cm²/g and pure slag meal over 4,500 cm²/g.
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.
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.
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 //
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.
