Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
Within the tower crane industry, the 1950s featured numerous significant milestones in tower crane development and design. There were a variety of manufacturers were beginning to produce more bottom slewing cranes that had telescoping mast. These types of machines dominated the construction business for apartment block and office construction. A lot of of the top tower crane manufacturers didn't use cantilever jib designs. As a substitute, 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. Often, construction sites were tight areas. Depending upon rail systems to move a large number of tower cranes, became too inconvenient and costly. A number of manufacturers were providing saddle jib cranes which had hook heights of 262 feet or 80 meters. These types of cranes were outfitted with self-climbing mechanisms that 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 additionally covered a larger work area. All of these developments precipitated the practice of building and anchoring cranes inside a building's lift shaft. 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, faster erection strategies, climbing mechanisms and technology, and new control systems. Furthermore, focus was spent on faster erection strategies with the most essential developments being made in the drive technology department, among other things.