Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
Within the tower crane industry, the 1950s featured many important milestones in tower crane development and design. There were a range of manufacturers were beginning to make more bottom slewing cranes that had telescoping mast. These types of machines dominated the construction market for office and apartment block construction. Lots of of the top tower crane manufacturers discarded the use of cantilever jib designs. As an alternative, they made the switch to luffing jibs and in time, utilizing luffing jibs became the regular method.
In Europe, there were major improvements being made in the design and development of tower cranes. Usually, construction locations were constricted places. Depending upon rail systems to transport several tower cranes, became very costly and difficult. Some manufacturers were offering saddle jib cranes that had hook heights of 262 feet or 80 meters. These cranes were equipped 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.
These specific cranes have long jibs and can cover a bigger work area. All of these developments resulted in the practice of erecting and anchoring cranes inside a building's lift shaft. After that, this is the technique which became the industry standard.
The main focus on tower crane development and design from the 1960s began on covering a higher load moment, covering a larger job radius, climbing mechanisms and technology, faster erection strategies, and new control systems. In addition, focus was spent on faster erection strategies with the most essential developments being made in the drive technology department, amongst other things.