Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
In the tower crane business, the 1950s featured many significant milestones in tower crane design and development. There were a variety of manufacturers were beginning to produce more bottom slewing cranes that had telescoping mast. These machinery dominated the construction business for apartment block and office construction. Lots of of the leading tower crane manufacturers didn't use cantilever jib designs. As an alternative, they made the switch to luffing jibs and eventually, the use of luffing jibs became the standard method.
Within Europe, there were major improvements being made in the design and development of tower cranes. Often, construction locations were tight places. Depending upon rail systems to transport several tower cranes, became too expensive and difficult. A number of manufacturers were offering saddle jib cranes which had hook heights of 262 feet or 80 meters. These cranes were outfitted 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.
These particular cranes have long jibs and could cover a larger work area. All of these developments led to the practice of building 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. Additionally, focus was spent on faster erection strategies with the most significant developments being made in the drive technology department, among other things.