Fives celebrates 30 years of innovation with the FCB Horomill® book
A milestone in cement grinding technology
Over the past three decades, the FCB Horomill® has established itself as a breakthrough technology, redefining performance standards in efficiency, flexibility and sustainability. Born from a visionary collaboration with Fratelli Buzzi (now Buzzi Unicem) in Italy, the concept introduced a new grinding approach based on centrifugation, delivering both high cement quality and significant energy savings.
Today, the FCB Horomill® stands as a reference solution in the industry, an innovation that has continuously evolved while maintaining its core promise: to offer a more efficient alternative to conventional grinding technologies.
A journey of innovations and highlights
The story of the FCB Horomill® is one of continuous technological advancement. From its first prototype in the early 1990s to the latest large-scale installations, each step has introduced new capabilities.
Over the years, Fives has expanded operational flexibility and pioneered innovative configuration. These developments have enabled customers to optimize investment costs, improve maintenance efficiency, and achieve high production capacities with compact layouts.
Ongoing upgrades and modernization projects demonstrate the long-term reliability and adaptability of the technology, ensuring that even facilities from several decades ago can meet today’s performance and product requirements.
Proven performance worldwide
From Europe to Asia and the Americas, the FCB Horomill® has demonstrated consistent, high-level performance across a wide range of applications and environments.
Installations around the world highlight its versatility:
- In Turkey, energy savings of up to 35–50% compared to conventional ball mills were achieved while maintaining production flexibility.
- In Mexico, plants equipped with Horomill® technology have reached some of the lowest electrical consumptions in the country.
- In Germany, the system has proven capable of producing multiple cement types, switching seamlessly between products several times a day.
- In Vietnam, the implementation of an innovative twin Horomill® configuration has enabled customers to increase production capacity while optimizing capital expenditure, thanks to a shared circuit design and a compact installation footprint.
- In Brazil, the largest Horomill® at date has delivered very high output rates combined with low energy consumption levels.
Whether in greenfield projects or plant upgrades, in harsh climates or complex production contexts, the FCB Horomill® has consistently delivered reliable results, confirming its status as a proven global solution.
A key enabler for decarbonization
As the cement industry intensifies its efforts to reduce its environmental footprint, the FCB Horomill® plays a crucial role in enabling decarbonization strategies.
Its design supports lower energy consumption and facilitates the use of alternative materials. By enabling higher substitution rates of clinker with supplementary cementitious materials such as slag or pozzolan, the technology directly contributes to reducing CO₂ emissions.
In some applications, the use of carbon-neutral additives combined with Horomill® technology, has resulted in significant emissions reductions, generating CO₂ savings of tens of thousands of tons per year.
Moreover, its ability to handle high-moisture materials, combined with integrated drying solutions, has enabled the use of locally available additives, supporting lower clinker content and improved environmental performance.
Looking ahead
This book does more than simply highlight past achievements; it also reflects Fives’ vision for the future. A vision in which performance, flexibility, and sustainability go hand in hand to shape the future of the cement industry.
This publication reflects not only 30 years of technological progress, but also the strong partnerships built with customers worldwide.
The journey continues: the full digital version of the book will be available in December.