For large building construction projects, tower cranes are utilized rather often. These machinery are quite essential for heavy lifting as well as positioning materials and equipment. Tower cranes offer a different design that provides many advantages over more conventional cranes. These advantages include: quiet electrical operation, higher vertical lift, increased capacities, and reduced space requirements.
Hammerhead Crane
A hammerhead crane is another design which is most typically associated with a tower crane. In this situation, a long horizontal jib is attached to a vertical tower. One end of the jib acts as a counterweight and the other end of the jib extends horizontally over the worksite. There is a trolley on the hammerhead crane. This trolley has the lifting cable and travels along the length of the jib. The tower crane can operate anywhere in the jib's radius.
Self-Erecting Tower Cranes
A self-erecting crane is capable of completely assembling itself at the jobsite without any assistance from a secondary crane. This really saves time in equipment costs and provides a huge benefit in setup time too. Self-erecting cranes are usually remote-controlled from the ground, even though there are some models which have an operator cab built onto the jib.
Self-erecting cranes are generally freestanding and this allows them the opportunity to be able to be moved around. There are several models which have a telescoping tower which allows the crane to work at multiple heights without the need to reconfigure the tower.
Luffing Jib Tower Crane
The majority of urban work environments do not have enough clearance or space for the jib to freely rotate without existing buildings blocking its movement. A luffing jib tower crane is ideal for such tight spaces. Most tower cranes have a fixed horizontal jib. The driver could raise or lower a luffing jib in order to allow the crane to swing in a reduced radius.