Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
In the tower crane business, the 1950s featured numerous important milestones in tower crane development and design. There were a variety of manufacturers were beginning to produce more bottom slewing cranes which had telescoping mast. These machinery dominated the construction business for both office and apartment block construction. A lot of of the top tower crane manufacturers discarded the use of cantilever jib designs. Instead, they made the switch to luffing jibs and eventually, utilizing luffing jibs became the standard practice.
Manufacturers based in Europe were also heavily influential in the development and design of tower cranes. Construction locations on the continent were often tight areas. Having to depend on rail systems to transport a large number of tower cranes, became too difficult and costly. A number of manufacturers were providing saddle jib cranes that had hook heights of 262 feet or 80 meters. These types of cranes were outfitted with self-climbing mechanisms that enabled parts of mast to be inserted into the crane so that it could grow along with the structures it was constructing upwards.
The long jibs on these specific cranes additionally covered a larger work area. All of these developments led to the practice of erecting and anchoring cranes in the lift shaft of a building. Afterwards, this is the technique which became the industry standard.
From the 1960s, the main focus on tower crane development and design started to cover a higher load moment, covering a bigger job radius, climbing mechanisms and technology, faster erection strategies, and new control systems. Moreover, focus was spent on faster erection strategies with the most significant developments being made in the drive technology department, amongst other things.