Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
In the tower crane industry, the 1950s featured numerous important 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 machinery dominated the construction industry for both apartment block and office construction. A lot of of the top tower crane manufacturers didn't use cantilever jib designs. In its place, they made the switch to luffing jibs and eventually, the use of luffing jibs became the regular method.
Within Europe, there were key improvements being made in the design and development of tower cranes. Often, construction locations were tight areas. Relying on rail systems to move several tower cranes, ended up being too costly and difficult. A number of manufacturers were offering saddle jib cranes that had hook heights of 80 meters or 262 feet. These kinds of cranes were equipped with self-climbing mechanisms that allowed parts of mast to be inserted into the crane so that it can grow along with the structures it was building upwards.
The long jibs on these specific cranes additionally covered a bigger work area. All of these developments precipitated the practice of building and anchoring cranes inside 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, faster erection strategies, climbing mechanisms and technology, and new control systems. In addition, focus was spent on faster erection strategies with the most important developments being made in the drive technology department, amongst other things.