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 machinery dominated the construction market for office and apartment block construction. Many 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 standard practice.
Within Europe, there were major improvements being made in the design and development of tower cranes. Normally, construction sites were constricted places. Relying on rail systems to transport several tower cranes, ended up being very inconvenient and costly. A number of manufacturers were offering saddle jib cranes which had hook heights of 80 meters or 262 feet. These cranes were outfitted with self-climbing mechanisms which allowed sections of mast to be inserted into the crane so that it could grow along with the structures it was building upwards.
These specific cranes have long jibs and can cover a larger work area. All of these developments precipitated the practice of building and anchoring cranes inside a building's lift shaft. After that, this is the technique which became the industry standard.
The main focus on tower crane design and development from the 1960s began on covering a higher load moment, covering a larger job radius, climbing mechanisms and technology, faster erection strategies, and new control systems. Furthermore, focus was spent on faster erection strategies with the most significant developments being made in the drive technology department, amongst other things.