NOVEMBER 2022 Ӏ CRANE HISTORY
ANNIVERSARY
The Gottwald AMK 45-21 was later recognised as a pioneer of all terrain cranes
a relatively small company Gottwald established itself for its outstanding design and engineering capabilities. In 1978 the company again topped the industry with its 200-tonne capacity AMK 200-103 tele truck crane.
j two-axle telescopic which
would later be recognised as a pioneer of all terrain cranes. Having at first scorned the potential of the hydraulic crane as a passing fancy, many of the large and well-established mechanical/ lattice boom crane manufacturers belatedly began to develop their own telescopics, as sales of small to medium size lattice cranes steadily declined. However, since demand for large-size lattice cranes increased the leading lattice crane manufacturers focussed on the development of the upper-end of their product ranges rather than on the telescopic developments. In 1975 Gottwald took the
crown with the world’s largest telescopic with their 140-tonne AMK 155-53 – the first units being purchased by Scotts of the UK and Sarens of Belgium. Although
American Hoist and Manitowoc dominated worldwide demand for large size lattice cranes and from 1970 to 1975 American’s sales of over 100 tons capacity increased from $20m to $84m (including large offshore barge and ship- mounted cranes). By the mid-1970s the number
of hydraulic crane manufacturers grew to an estimated 140 companies manufactured in 25 countries. The pace and volume of new product development increased with the ever-broadening number of competitive suppliers. Although many had considered the telescopic crane fundamentally limited in terms of reach and capacity, the first 100-ton truck crane (Grove TM 1075) was introduced in 1974 and the following year the first 52.7m telescopic boom was introduced again by Grove on the 125-ton (113-tonne) TM 1275 truck crane.
BLACK GOLD
The Grove TM 1075 was introduced in 1974
48 CRANES TODAY
The opening up of the Prudhoe Bay oil field and subsequent construction of the Trans-Alaskan pipeline during the early 1970s was the first major petrochemical project to employ over 100 hydraulic cranes. It would not be the last. Thanks to the efforts of the Grove/Caterpillar pipeline distributor – Fabbick Tractor of St Louis, MO, and Grove distributor Gleason Cranes of Chicago, the vast majority of the 200 cranes employed on this challenging project were Groves. Larger-size swing cab rough terrain cranes of 50-tons (1975) and 80-tons (1978) capacity were pioneered by Grove and became
viable alternatives to crawler cranes on unmade construction sizes, further broadening the application potential of the telescopic crane. As the 1970s drew to a close
Germany’s manufacturers began to fully exercise their engineering talent, introducing 150-200-tonne capacity telescopic truck cranes as well as truck cranes with better off-road travel performance which would, a few years later, be renamed all terrain cranes. During the early 1970s North American market demand for telescopics continued to grow, reaching over 4,000 units in 1974 and 1975 – with about two-thirds of these being (mainly small) rough terrains, one-quarter truck cranes, and the remainder industrials. Meanwhile in West Europe crane demand was strong during the early 1970s before softening markedly in 1974 and remaining relatively weak for most of the rest of the decade. However, Europe’s fast-
expanding number of telescopic crane manufacturers and their broadening range of types and sizes provided attractive openings both to replace lattice cranes and to exploit export opportunities. By this time the Comecon
countries of Eastern Europe were generating significant demand for cranes. Coles, Grove and P&H were amongst the most successful players in this region. The USSR also placed very large orders for telescopic truck cranes with Kato winning orders for over 2,000 cranes in the mid-1970s. China was also emerging as a significant market, served primarily by Kato and Tadano of Japan and Coles of the UK. Another communist country, Cuba, bought over 1,000 cranes during the mid-1970s mainly from Kato and Coles. In 1972 Grove acquired a
majority holding in John Allen Ltd of Oxford, the company they had
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