Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
In the tower crane industry, the 1950s featured many significant milestones in tower crane design and development. There were a variety of manufacturers were starting to produce more bottom slewing cranes that had telescoping mast. These machines dominated the construction industry for both office and apartment block construction. Many of the top tower crane manufacturers discarded the use of cantilever jib designs. In its place, they made the switch to luffing jibs and in time, using luffing jibs became the regular method.
Manufacturers based in Europe were also heavily important in the development and design of tower cranes. Construction areas on the continent were normally tight places. Having to rely upon rail systems to move several tower cranes, ended up being too inconvenient and costly. A number of manufacturers were providing saddle jib cranes that had hook heights of 80 meters or 262 feet. These types of cranes were outfitted with self-climbing mechanisms which allowed parts of mast to be inserted into the crane so that it can grow along with the structures it was constructing upwards.
The long jibs on these particular cranes also covered a larger work area. All of these developments resulted in the practice of constructing 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 design and development started to cover a higher load moment, covering a larger job radius, climbing mechanisms and technology, faster erection strategies, 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.