NOVEMBER 2022 Ӏ CRANE HISTORY


ANNIVERSARY


a 65-tonner from P&H in 1969 and the 80-ton Grove TM 800 in 1970. In particular the TM 800 was a real game-changer, featuring the patented Trapezoidal boom. Meanwhile, in In Japan, Kato


introduced a 32-tonne truck crane in 1967 and, in 1969, the NK75 – a 75-tonne capacity truck crane mounted on a four-axle Mitsubishi Fuso carrier and with a 43m four- section full power boom – claimed to be the longest in the world. In Germany Demag introduced


j up to 45t capacity available in


self-propelled, truck-mounted and rail-mounted versions. By the 1950s tower cranes had also developed in capacity and reach and the first saddle- jib cranes using trolley-mounted hooks, from Potain, Linden, and others, were arriving to supersede the needle type cranes that had been the staple for some 50 years. Considering all of the main varieties of crane, for the tower crane industry the late 1940s and early 1950s were the most tumultuous. Across Europe new manufacturers cropped up with breath taking regularity. Soon after the end of the


second world war, in 1945, Braud & Faucheux of Ancenis, in the Loire region of France, developed their first small ‘tower’ crane. Its designer was killed during the liberation of Ancenis leaving the company to be managed for many years by his widow. In 1949 Hans Liebherr had built his first, and the world’s first self-erecting crane, the TK 10, and by 1952 new tower crane businesses had been started in the shape of Cadillon, Konig, Ferro, Boilot, Hilgers, Simma, Reich, Pekazette, Schwing, and, in Finland, Betox. By the mid-1950s small tower cranes were increasingly used in


38 CRANES TODAY


Hans Liebherr and a Liebherr staff member, Kirchdorf, circa 1950


residential construction in mainland Europe and manufacturers began to focus on particular size and type categories.


THE 1950S AND 1960S During the 1950s the development of the purpose-built crane carrier chassis had revolutionised lattice truck crane development and soon, larger size telescopic truck cranes (on crane carrier chassis) were also being built. Specialist vehicle manufacturers


Faun and Atkinson were joined, in 1963, by Foden which brought enhanced levels of quality and sophistication to the crane industry. By that time lattice boom cranes had reached an advanced level of technical maturity. Meanwhile, during the 1960s, the number of US manufacturers of telescopic cranes grew with well-over 20 firms entering to industry including Pettibone (1961), Galion (1963), Lorain and Shield Bantam (1967), P&H (1968) and Link-Belt (1969).


GAME CHANGER The world’s first 25 ton tele truck crane was introduced by Grove in 1964, followed in 1966 by the first 30-tonner from Pettibone, the first 45-tonner from Grove also in 1966, a 50-ton Pettibone in 1967,


its rounded ‘Ovaloid’ boom in 1970 and, in 1975, introduced the world’s largest tele boom crane in the shape of the 140-tonne capacity HC 500.


As had been the case pre-war,


the European crane market of the 1960s remained dominated by small mechanical crawler and increasingly truck-mounted excavator/cranes of nine to 15 tonnes capacity. Industry leader was UK-based Ruston-Bucyrus (R-B) which produced as many as 1,800 units per year and ultimately 10,246 between 1950 and 1985. R-B was the UK affiliate of


Bucyrus-Erie and by-far Europe’s largest manufacturer of these machines which were offered with a variety of ‘front-end’ attachments ranging from lift crane to dragline, clamshell/ grab, backhoe, face shovel and piledriver. In this business other long-established major British players included NCK-Ransoms & Rapier, Thos. Smith & Sons (Rodley) Ltd., Priestman Brothers Ltd., John Allen & Sons (Oxford) Ltd., Babcock-Marion and Jones Cranes Ltd. Across the channel, markets were served by the likes of Demag, Menck, Gottwald of Germany, Fiorentini of Milan, and Pinguely and Nordest of France. During these post-war years


there was a serious shortage of cranes of all types with construction work and


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