It seems cranes were invented to make things easier for tradespeople. If we didn’t have cranes unloading, loading and heavy lifting would need to be done by our bare hands. Lifting with your bare hands not only consumes more time, but it is also harmful to yourself to be lifting such heavy items. When storey buildings are created, there is no possible way for humankind to raise everything so high, so without cranes, we wouldn’t have skyscrapers that have made our life better. It was the Greeks who first invented the crane, hundreds of a years ago. It was then us who made them more efficient, easier to use and to reach further heights.
Cranes use a system with a pulley and cable to create a mechanical advantage for lifting those concrete blocks and huge buildings. When hiring a crane, they have different cranes for different purposes,
but most are decided upon their stability and it’s lifting capacity.
Cables, ropes, winders, chains and the pulley system are used in all crane designs. A lever on the crane makes the machine work easier by lowering the force needed to lift and move items. Each gear deploys the torque that is involved and enables the machine to lift all types of heavy loads.
The pulley works by distributing the weight that is needed to lift the item. With technology being applied to cranes now, it has made them easier to control as it requires no more manual. The hi-tech cranes will use simpler systems that are integrated with the type of crane that the builder will hire. It will all depend on what job needs to be done.
Crane hire companies are a booming now and the most commonly hired out crane is the tower crane. These are used when construction is underway for tall buildings. These can reach to 265 feet and go as wide as 230 feet their lift weight is most often 20 tonnes. Tower cranes are always fixed to the floor for the whole construction period. The tower crane has a robust concrete pad so the machines anchor bolts can be put into the pad which is what holds the crane when it is being operated.
Rough terrain crane
This crane is a particular type and is mounted to an undercarriage and has rubber tires that aid in the use of off-road jobs. They use outriggers that help to stabilise the crane.
Vehicle mounted
Vehicle mounted cranes are used as they can be easily moved. Truck mounted cranes can travel on highways, so there is no need for extra equipment in order to transport the crane to where it is going. Once the crane is erected at the site the outriggers are then extended out from the base of the vehicle to stabilise the crane.
Crawler crane
This type of crane is a mobile crane that doesn’t need the outriggers to stable it. The crawler crane is mounted to the chassis of the vehicle with tracks and can lift around 40 tonnes to 3500 tonnes. These often need to be assembled and disassembled in order to transport it between construction sites.
Basically, down to it, cranes are hired to make not only the builders’ life more comfortable but also makes the developers’ life a lot more convenient. Imagine a developer wanted to build 200 apartments and cranes did not exist. The project would run for ten years or more. Whereas with cranes in the picture, big projects like this run for maximum two to three years, which is an excellent result for builders and developers. And instead of buying all the different cranes they need, instead, they hire them and pay lower fees than to buy outright.
