History of Industry Crane

In 10 BC, the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius described a lifting machine in his architectural manual. This machine has a mast with a pulley on the top of the mast. The position of the mast is fixed by a guy cable, and the cable passing through the pulley is pulled by a winch to lift the heavy object. Some super-heavy machinery can use two masts to form a herringbone shape to move the hoisted object laterally, but the range is very small and the operation is very laborious.

It was not until the 15th century that Italy invented the jib industry crane that this problem was solved. This kind of industry crane has an inclined cantilever with pulleys on the top of the arm, which can be lifted and rotated. But until the 18th century, all kinds of hoisting machinery used by humans were powered by manpower or animal power, and were limited in terms of lifting capacity, scope of use and work efficiency.

In the middle and late 18th century, after the British Watt improved and invented the steam engine, it provided power conditions for lifting machinery. In 1805, Glenn engineer Lenny built the first steam industry cranes for the London Dockyard. In 1846, Armstrong of England changed a steam industry crane in Newcastle Dockyard into a hydraulic industry crane.

In the early 20th century, Europe began to use tower industry cranes.

industry cranes mainly include hoisting mechanism, operating mechanism, luffing mechanism, slewing mechanism and metal structure. The hoisting mechanism is the basic working mechanism of the industry crane, mostly composed of a suspension system and a winch, and also lifts heavy objects through a hydraulic system. The operating mechanism is used to move heavy objects vertically and horizontally or adjust the working position of the industry crane, and is generally composed of a motor, a reducer, a brake and wheels. The luffing mechanism is only equipped on the jib type industry crane. When the jib is raised, the range decreases, and when it is lowered, the range increases. There are two types: balanced luffing and unbalanced luffing. The slewing mechanism is used to turn the arm frame, and it is composed of a driving device and a slewing support device. The metal structure is the skeleton of the industry crane. The main load-carrying parts such as bridge frame, arm frame and door frame can be box-shaped structure or truss structure, or web structure, and some steel can be used as supporting beam.