Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
In the tower crane industry, the 1950s showcased many important milestones in tower crane development and design. There were a range of manufacturers were starting to make more bottom slewing cranes which had telescoping mast. These machines dominated the construction business for both apartment block and office construction. A lot of of the top tower crane manufacturers abandoned the use of cantilever jib designs. As an alternative, they made the switch to luffing jibs and in time, using luffing jibs became the standard practice.
In Europe, there were key improvements being made in the development and design of tower cranes. Normally, construction locations were tight places. Depending on rail systems to move several tower cranes, became too difficult and costly. Some manufacturers were providing saddle jib cranes which had hook heights of 80 meters or 262 feet. These types of cranes were outfitted with self-climbing mechanisms which enabled sections 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 a building's lift shaft. Afterwards, this is the method which became the industry standard.
From the 1960s, the main focus on tower crane development and design 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.