For big building construction projects, tower cranes are used rather frequently. These machinery are quite essential for heavy lifting as well as placing materials and equipment. Tower cranes provide a different configuration which provides a lot of advantages over more traditional cranes. These advantages comprise: higher vertical lift, quiet electrical operation, reduced space requirements and increased capacities.
Hammerhead Crane
A hammerhead crane is a different configuration that 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 extends horizontally over the worksite and the other end of the jib acts as a counterweight. 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 help from another crane. This provides a huge benefit in setup time and greatly saves time in equipment costs as well. Self-erecting cranes are often remote-controlled from the ground, even though there are some models which have an operator cab built onto the jib.
Self-erecting cranes are generally freestanding and this allows them the opportunity to be able to be moved around. There are some models that have a telescoping tower which enables the crane to work at various heights without the need to reconfigure the tower.
Luffing Jib Tower Crane
Usually, within urban work settings, there is not enough clearance or space for the jib to rotate freely without being blocked by existing buildings. A luffing jib tower crane is ideal for such confined spaces. Most tower cranes have a fixed horizontal jib. The driver can lower or raise a luffing jib in order to enable the crane to swing in a reduced radius.