Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
In the tower crane industry, the 1950s featured many significant milestones in tower crane design and development. There were a range of manufacturers were beginning to produce more bottom slewing cranes which had telescoping mast. These kinds of equipments dominated the construction industry for office and apartment block construction. Many of the leading tower crane manufacturers abandoned the use of cantilever jib designs. Instead, they made the switch to luffing jibs and eventually, utilizing luffing jibs became the standard method.
In Europe, there were key improvements being made in the design and development of tower cranes. Usually, construction locations were constricted areas. Having to rely upon rail systems to transport a large number of tower cranes, ended up being too difficult and expensive. A number of manufacturers were offering saddle jib cranes that had hook heights of 80 meters or 262 feet. These cranes were outfitted with self-climbing mechanisms which allowed sections of mast to be inserted into the crane so that it could grow along with the structures it was building upwards.
These particular cranes have long jibs and could cover a bigger work area. All of these developments precipitated the practice of constructing and anchoring cranes inside a building's lift shaft. Then, this is the technique that 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 bigger job radius, faster erection strategies, climbing mechanisms and technology, and new control systems. Furthermore, focus was spent on faster erection strategies with the most significant developments being made in the drive technology department, among other things.