Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
Throughout the 1950s in the tower crane industry, there were numerous important developments in the design of these big cranes. Numerous manufacturers were started making bottom slewing cranes with a telescoping mast. These kinds of equipments dominated the construction industry for both apartment block and office construction. A lot of of the leading tower crane manufacturers abandoned the use of cantilever jib designs. In its place, they made the switch to luffing jibs and eventually, using luffing jibs became the regular method.
Manufacturers based within Europe were also heavily important in the design and development of tower cranes. Construction sites on the continent were normally constricted places. Depending on rail systems to move several tower cranes, became very difficult and costly. Some manufacturers were offering saddle jib cranes that had hook heights of 80 meters or 262 feet. These cranes were outfitted with self-climbing mechanisms which allowed sections of mast to be inserted into the crane so that it can grow along with the structures it was constructing upwards.
These specific cranes have long jibs and can cover a larger work area. All of these developments resulted in the practice of building and anchoring cranes inside 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. Additionally, focus was spent on faster erection strategies with the most significant developments being made in the drive technology department, among other things.