Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
In the 1950s in the tower crane industry, there were numerous important developments in the design of these large cranes. Numerous manufacturers were started making bottom slewing cranes with a telescoping mast. These types of equipments dominated the construction industry for apartment block and office construction. Many of the top tower crane manufacturers abandoned the use of cantilever jib designs. As a substitute, they made the switch to luffing jibs and eventually, using luffing jibs became the standard method.
Within Europe, there were major improvements being made in the development and design of tower cranes. Usually, construction locations were tight places. Depending upon rail systems to transport a large number of tower cranes, became too inconvenient and costly. A number of manufacturers were offering saddle jib cranes that had hook heights of 80 meters or 262 feet. These cranes were equipped 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 constructing upwards.
The long jibs on these particular 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. After that, this is the technique that became the industry standard.
The main focus on tower crane development and design from the 1960s started on covering 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 significant developments being made in the drive technology department, amongst other things.