Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
In the tower crane industry, the 1950s featured numerous significant milestones in tower crane design and development. There were a variety of manufacturers were starting to produce more bottom slewing cranes which had telescoping mast. These equipments dominated the construction business for both apartment block and office construction. Many of the leading tower crane manufacturers abandoned the use of cantilever jib designs. In its place, they made the switch to luffing jibs and in time, using luffing jibs became the standard practice.
Manufacturers based within Europe were also really important in the design and development of tower cranes. Construction locations on the continent were usually tight places. Depending on rail systems to move several tower cranes, ended up being very difficult and expensive. Some manufacturers were providing saddle jib cranes that had hook heights of 80 meters or 262 feet. These cranes were equipped 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 building upwards.
These specific cranes have long jibs and can cover a bigger work area. All of these developments precipitated the practice of constructing and anchoring cranes in a building's lift shaft. Afterwards, this is the technique that 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, among other things.