Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
In the tower crane industry, the 1950s featured numerous important milestones in tower crane development and design. There were a range of manufacturers were starting to produce more bottom slewing cranes that had telescoping mast. These machinery dominated the construction industry for both apartment block and office construction. A lot of of the leading tower crane manufacturers abandoned the use of cantilever jib designs. Instead, they made the switch to luffing jibs and eventually, using luffing jibs became the standard practice.
Within Europe, there were key improvements being made in the design and development of tower cranes. Usually, construction sites were constricted places. Relying on rail systems to move several tower cranes, became very difficult and expensive. Some 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 enabled sections 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 bigger work area. All of these developments led to the practice of erecting and anchoring cranes in a building's lift shaft. Afterwards, this is the method that became the industry standard.
The main focus on tower crane development and design 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. Moreover, focus was spent on faster erection strategies with the most significant developments being made in the drive technology department, amongst other things.