ANNIVERSARY
CRANE HISTORY Ӏ NOVEMBER 2022
j While flat top (topless) cranes
continued to grow in popularity in China and worldwide, in some countries like Korea, traditional hammerhead cranes like the Potain MC 310 remained very popular. Just as flat-top tower cranes
had carved out a significant market niche during the 2000s and 2010s, as manufacturers sought to balance the benefits of hammerheads versus this ‘new’ variety a third variety emerged bearing the rather cumbersome name of ‘low-tops’ as a kind of in between category – albeit with clearly definable benefits. Meanwhile in 2019 Liebherr introduced its largest flat top in the shape of the 1000 EC-B 125 of 125-tonnes max capacity. In 2019, Zoomlion, now China
and the world’s largest tower crane manufacturer, opened a huge new factory in Changde. It was the result of a RMB 780 million €100 million investment programme that started in 2016. It included 12 automated production lines, more than 10,000 sensors over 100 industrial robots and 16 CNC processing centres.
BENCHMARK MODELS Beginning in the early 1970s Grove made a strong push to develop demand for larger-size rough terrains. The 35-ton RT 65S and 50-ton RT 75S were the first rough terrains to feature trapezoidal booms and established themselves as benchmarks. Some 1400 RT 65Ss were sold
worldwide. Grove upped the ante in 1978 with the 80-ton RT 980 which confounded critics by becoming a runaway success and for the first time became a viable alternative to lattice crawler cranes. Hopes were high in 1982 when Grove introduced the massive 8x8x8 150-tonne capacity RT 1650. Unfortunately the crane was
too far ahead of its hydraulic and automotive component technology which proved unreliable. To this
time, the competition had steered clear of competing with Grove. In 1993 Grove returned to a
more conventional approach with its 100-ton RT 9100 and in 2001 added the 120-tonne capacity RT 9130E. Throughout the decades of Grove market dominance, Link-Belt and Lorain had persisted as significant US competitors but strong rough terrain crane competition also persisted from Japan’s Tadano and Kato and most recently from the all terrain crane market leader Liebherr. Always innovative Link-Belt
broke the traditional mould of two-axle rough terrains in 2002 with the 100-ton RTC 80100. This three-axle model afforded lower transport heights than the big two- axle RTs allowing them to be legally low-bedded at under 4m. The new 6x6 Link-Belts quickly found a willing market and Link-Belt has subsequently developed 130 and 160-tonne models, Unlike Grove’s RT 1650, when
Tadano developed its largest rough terrain to date, the 160-ton (145-tonne) GR 1600XL - albeit some 25-years later, they selected a three-axle carrier. Meanwhile with its latest 165-ton (150-tonne) GRT 9165 Grove adopted a similar 6x4x6 configuration. By the 1990s demand for
rough terrains cranes of 15 to 30 tonnes capacity, for generations the workhorse crane in countries like the US and Middle East, found reducing demand. The trend wasn’t just in conventional small rough terrains which progressively had been replaced in the market by larger rough terrains of 40,50, 60 and 65 tonne capacity. In addition, telehandlers with similar boom reach of up to 18 to 23 metres and able to handle loads of one to four tonnes had become the preferred small-size high-reach option. Japan’s mini rough terrains of seven to ten tonne capacity that
The Grove GRT 9165
had become such a phenomenon in the 1990s and 2000s had been replaced by similarly compact cranes of 13 to 16 tonne capacity, while in the UK the small seven to ten tonne Coles Speedcranes and Iron Fairies were long gone.
TELE BOOM CRAWLERS Adding new competition to rough terrains, tele boom crawler cranes continued to grow in popularity and capabilities. First introduced by Grove
and Coles in the early 1960s for decades this variety had remained a niche market product essentially kept alive by manufacturers such as Mantis of the US. One of Germany’s most
famous and respected makers of crawler cranes and excavators – Sennebogen – was an early proponent of tele boom crawler cranes and has subsequently developed as a leading full-line supplier which today also provides its products through an OEM branding agreement with Grove for the North American market. In 2007 Link-Belt joined the
fray and has since become the US market leader with a full
f CRANES TODAY 65
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