Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
During the 1950s in the tower crane industry, there were numerous important developments in the design of these big cranes. Numerous manufacturers were started making bottom slewing cranes with a telescoping mast. These equipments dominated the construction industry for both apartment block and office construction. A lot of of the top tower crane manufacturers didn't utilize cantilever jib designs. In its place, they made the switch to luffing jibs and in time, utilizing luffing jibs became the standard practice.
Within Europe, there were key improvements being made in the development and design of tower cranes. Normally, construction sites were tight places. Relying on rail systems to move a large number of tower cranes, became very difficult and expensive. A number of manufacturers were providing saddle jib cranes which had hook heights of 80 meters or 262 feet. These cranes were equipped with self-climbing mechanisms which enabled sections 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 could cover a bigger work area. All of these developments precipitated the practice of constructing and anchoring cranes inside the lift shaft of a building. After that, this is the technique that 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, climbing mechanisms and technology, faster erection strategies, and new control systems. In addition, focus was spent on faster erection strategies with the most important developments being made in the drive technology department, among other things.