Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
During the 1950s in the tower crane industry, there were many significant 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 business for office and apartment block construction. Many of the top tower crane manufacturers didn't use cantilever jib designs. In its place, they made the switch to luffing jibs and eventually, using luffing jibs became the regular practice.
Within Europe, there were major improvements being made in the development and design of tower cranes. Often, construction sites were tight areas. Having to rely upon rail systems to transport a large number of tower cranes, became very costly and inconvenient. A number of manufacturers were providing saddle jib cranes which had hook heights of 80 meters or 262 feet. These cranes were outfitted with self-climbing mechanisms which enabled 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 precipitated the practice of constructing and anchoring cranes in a building's lift shaft. After that, this is the technique which became the industry standard.
From the 1960s, the main focus on tower crane development and design started to cover a higher load moment, covering a bigger 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 essential developments being made in the drive technology department, amongst other things.