Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
Throughout the 1950s in the tower crane industry, there were numerous significant developments in the design of these large cranes. Numerous manufacturers were started producing bottom slewing cranes with a telescoping mast. These equipments dominated the construction market for both office and apartment block construction. A lot of of the leading tower crane manufacturers abandoned the use of cantilever jib designs. Instead, they made the switch to luffing jibs and in time, using luffing jibs became the regular practice.
In Europe, there were major improvements being made in the design and development of tower cranes. Normally, construction locations were constricted places. Depending upon rail systems to transport several tower cranes, became too costly and inconvenient. A number of manufacturers were providing saddle jib cranes that had hook heights of 262 feet or 80 meters. These types 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 constructing upwards.
The long jibs on these specific cranes also covered a larger work area. All of these developments precipitated the practice of erecting and anchoring cranes inside a building's lift shaft. After that, 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 bigger job radius, faster erection strategies, climbing mechanisms and technology, 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.