Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
In the tower crane business, the 1950s featured numerous important milestones in tower crane design and development. There were a variety of manufacturers were beginning to make more bottom slewing cranes that had telescoping mast. These equipments dominated the construction market for both apartment block and office construction. Many of the leading tower crane manufacturers abandoned the use of cantilever jib designs. Instead, they made the switch to luffing jibs and in time, using luffing jibs became the regular method.
Manufacturers based within Europe were also heavily important in the design and development of tower cranes. Construction locations on the continent were normally tight places. Relying upon rail systems to transport a large number of tower cranes, ended up being very expensive and inconvenient. A number of manufacturers were providing saddle jib cranes which had hook heights of 80 meters or 262 feet. These kinds of cranes were outfitted with self-climbing mechanisms that enabled sections of mast to be inserted into the crane so that it could grow along with the structures it was building upwards.
The long jibs on these particular cranes also covered a bigger work area. All of these developments led to the practice of erecting and anchoring cranes inside a building's lift shaft. Then, this is the method which became the industry standard.
The main focus on tower crane design and development from the 1960s started on covering a higher load moment, covering a larger job radius, faster erection strategies, climbing mechanisms and technology, and new control systems. In addition, focus was spent on faster erection strategies with the most essential developments being made in the drive technology department, among other things.