For large building construction projects, tower cranes are used quite often. These equipments are rather required for heavy lifting as well as positioning supplies and equipment. Tower cranes provide a different configuration that provides a lot of benefits over more traditional cranes. These advantages include: higher vertical lift, quiet electrical operation, reduced space requirements and increased capacities.
Hammerhead Crane
A hammerhead crane is another configuration which is most often associated with a tower crane. In this situation, a long horizontal jib is connected to a vertical tower. One end of the jib acts as a counterweight and the other end of the jib extends horizontally over the worksite. There is a trolley on the hammerhead crane. This trolley holds the lifting cable and travels along the length of the jib. The tower crane could operate anywhere in the jib's radius.
Self-Erecting Tower Cranes
A self-erecting crane is capable of completely assembling itself at the jobsite without any assistance from a secondary crane. This really saves time in equipment expenses and provides a huge benefit in setup time too. Self-erecting cranes are normally remote-controlled from the ground, though there are several models that have an operator cab built onto the jib.
Self-erecting cranes are normally freestanding and this allows them the opportunity to be able to be moved around. There are some models which have a telescoping tower that allows the crane to work at multiple heights without the need to reconfigure the tower.
Luffing Jib Tower Crane
Often, within urban work environments, there is not enough clearance or space for the jib to freely rotate without being blocked by existing buildings. A luffing jib tower crane is ideal for such confined areas. The majority of tower cranes have a fixed horizontal jib. The operator can lower or raise a luffing jib in order to allow the crane to swing in a reduced radius.