Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
In the tower crane business, the 1950s showcased many important milestones in tower crane development and design. There were a range of manufacturers were beginning to make more bottom slewing cranes which had telescoping mast. These equipments dominated the construction industry for office and apartment block 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 standard practice.
In Europe, there were major improvements being made in the development and design of tower cranes. Normally, construction sites were tight places. Relying upon rail systems to transport several tower cranes, ended up being too expensive and difficult. A number of manufacturers were offering saddle jib cranes which had hook heights of 80 meters or 262 feet. These kinds of cranes were outfitted with self-climbing mechanisms that allowed sections of mast to be inserted into the crane so that it can 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 building and anchoring cranes inside the lift shaft of a building. Then, 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 bigger 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.