Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
During the 1950s in the tower crane business, there were numerous important developments in the design of these big cranes. Numerous manufacturers were started making bottom slewing cranes with a telescoping mast. These machinery dominated the construction market for office and apartment block construction. Many of the leading tower crane manufacturers abandoned the use of cantilever jib designs. As a substitute, they made the switch to luffing jibs and in time, utilizing luffing jibs became the regular method.
In Europe, there were key improvements being made in the development and design of tower cranes. Usually, construction sites were tight places. Having to depend upon rail systems to move several tower cranes, ended up being very expensive and difficult. Some manufacturers were providing saddle jib cranes that had hook heights of 262 feet or 80 meters. These kinds of cranes were outfitted with self-climbing mechanisms which enabled parts 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 specific cranes also covered a bigger work area. All of these developments resulted in the practice of constructing and anchoring cranes in the lift shaft of a building. Afterwards, this is the method which became the industry standard.
From the 1960s, the main focus on tower crane design and development started to cover a higher load moment, covering a larger job radius, faster erection strategies, climbing mechanisms and technology, and new control systems. Furthermore, focus was spent on faster erection strategies with the most important developments being made in the drive technology department, amongst other things.