Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
In the tower crane industry, the 1950s featured many important milestones in tower crane development and design. There were a range of manufacturers were starting to make more bottom slewing cranes that had telescoping mast. These types of machines dominated the construction industry for apartment block and office construction. A lot of of the top tower crane manufacturers discarded the use of cantilever jib designs. Instead, they made the switch to luffing jibs and in time, the use of luffing jibs became the regular method.
Manufacturers based in Europe were also heavily influential in the development and design of tower cranes. Construction locations on the continent were usually tight areas. Having to depend upon rail systems to transport a large number of tower cranes, became too expensive and inconvenient. A number of manufacturers were offering saddle jib cranes which had hook heights of 80 meters or 262 feet. These 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 additionally covered a larger work area. All of these developments led to 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 development and design started to cover a higher load moment, covering a larger job radius, climbing mechanisms and technology, faster erection strategies, and new control systems. Moreover, focus was spent on faster erection strategies with the most essential developments being made in the drive technology department, amongst other things.