Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
During the 1950s in the tower crane business, 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 equipments dominated the construction industry for office and apartment block construction. Many of the leading tower crane manufacturers abandoned the use of cantilever jib designs. In its place, they made the switch to luffing jibs and in time, utilizing luffing jibs became the standard method.
In Europe, there were major improvements being made in the design and development of tower cranes. Usually, construction sites were constricted places. Relying upon rail systems to move a large number of tower cranes, became very expensive and difficult. A number of manufacturers were offering saddle jib cranes which had hook heights of 262 feet or 80 meters. These kinds of cranes were outfitted with self-climbing mechanisms that 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 larger work area. All of these developments led to the practice of building and anchoring cranes inside a building's lift shaft. Then, this is the method which 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 bigger 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.