Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
In the tower crane industry, the 1950s featured many significant milestones in tower crane development and design. There were a variety of manufacturers were beginning to produce more bottom slewing cranes which had telescoping mast. These kinds of machinery dominated the construction market for both office and apartment block construction. A lot of of the leading tower crane manufacturers didn't use cantilever jib designs. In its place, they made the switch to luffing jibs and in time, utilizing luffing jibs became the standard method.
Within Europe, there were key improvements being made in the design and development of tower cranes. Often, construction sites were tight places. Relying upon rail systems to move several tower cranes, ended up being too difficult and expensive. A number of manufacturers were providing saddle jib cranes that had hook heights of 262 feet or 80 meters. These kinds of 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 building upwards.
The long jibs on these specific cranes also covered a bigger work area. All of these developments resulted in the practice of erecting and anchoring cranes inside a building's lift shaft. Afterwards, this is the method which became the industry standard.
The main focus on tower crane design and development from the 1960s started on covering a higher load moment, covering a bigger 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 significant developments being made in the drive technology department, amongst other things.