Crane is very commonly used construction equipment. Depending on the types of work, there are different types of cranes used in construction.When you walk onto a construction site, it’s amazing to see all of the different types of heavy equipment and machinery being used. Often, the very first thing you see is a crane with its boom or mast up in the air carrying or lifting a load.
Static vs Mobile cranes
There are two main categories of cranes: static and mobile . A static is a permanent/semi-permanent structure fixed to the ground or building that lifts and moves loads along a fixed path. A mobile is mounted on treads or wheels and can be moved from job site to job site.
Types of Static
Tower cranes
are the cranes you see along city skylines that are used to build tall structures such as skyscrapers. The basic components are a vertical tower—also known as a mast—and an outstretched jib.
The trolley and hook block travel along the jib, which can rotate 360 degrees around the mast (this motion is called slewing). Often, these cranes are assembled using smaller, mobile.
A level-luffing
A level-luffing consists of a vertical mast attached to a rotating, latticed jib that slews and moves inward and outward from the base.
The inward and outward jib movement unique to these cranes provides a mechanism for keeping the hook leveled while simultaneously moving the jib up and down. This makes these particularly useful when carefully lifting and moving loads near ground level.Rather than a trolley and hook block traveling along the jib, the jib itself moves inward and outward to move into place for lifting and lowering the load. These are often used in building ships, freight loading, and construction.
Mobile cranes
are not restricted to a fixed path like a static crane. Some mobile are capable of a “pick and carry” function, where they quite literally pick up a load and carry it to a different location via its treads or wheels. Some mobile require the use of outriggers, counterweights, or even on-site assembly.
Crawler
A Crawler is a type of mobile that moves on tracks which are called crawlers. So, from here the name “Crawler” comes from. They are available with either a telescopic or lattice boom. It can move around the site without a set-up.
Crawler do not require the use of outriggers as the treads provide adequate stability. Due to their extensive on-site assembly, massive size, and treads, crawler cranes are not road legal.
Crawler may utilize a lattice boom or a telescopic boom. Those that utilize a lattice boom can lift heavier capacities at higher heights and further distances than those that utilize a telescopic boom
The advantages of Crawler:
- Crawler can move on any surface of the earth, even it can move on a soft surface due to its crawlers.
- It can be used on unprepared sites as its load is distributed in a greater area.
Truck-Mounted Crane
It is basically a self-propelled loading and unloading machine which consists of rotating cantilever boom. It uses the same engine for the undercarriage.Depending on the type of mobile , they may or may not be road legal. Some sources define a mobile as this, while others define any mounted to a mobile vehicle powered by an engine as a mobile For the purposes of this article, the latter explanation is considered a mobile .
the advantages of Truck-mounted :
- It can travel on highways itself.
The disadvantages are:
- It moves at a low-speed around
- They are not usually used for longer hire periods
