Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
In the tower crane industry, the 1950s featured numerous important milestones in tower crane development and design. There were a range of manufacturers were starting to make more bottom slewing cranes which had telescoping mast. These kinds of machines dominated the construction business for apartment block and office construction. Many of the leading tower crane manufacturers didn't utilize cantilever jib designs. In its place, they made the switch to luffing jibs and in time, the use of luffing jibs became the standard practice.
In Europe, there were key improvements being made in the design and development of tower cranes. Normally, construction sites were tight places. Having to depend upon rail systems to move a large number of tower cranes, ended up being too expensive and inconvenient. A number of manufacturers were providing saddle jib cranes that had hook heights of 80 meters or 262 feet. These kinds of cranes were equipped 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 particular cranes have long jibs and could cover a larger work area. All of these developments resulted in the practice of constructing and anchoring cranes inside a building's lift shaft. After that, this is the method that 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 larger job radius, faster erection strategies, climbing mechanisms and technology, 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.