Tower cranes are mainly used in the construction industry. The main use is the vertical and horizontal transport of materials and the installation of building components on construction sites.

Originating in Europe, tower cranes can be traced back to as early as before 1930, and the history of the industry has been nearly a century.

The earliest industrial standard for tower cranes was published in Germany in 1941 as DIN 8770. The standard specifies that the lifting capacity of a tower crane is expressed in terms of the product of the lifting load (t) and the amplitude (m) together with the weight moment (tm).

This standard is now common to the industry. The tower crane is made up of three parts: the metal structure, the working mechanism, and the electrical system. The metal structure includes the tower body, the moving arm, and the base.

The working mechanism has four parts: hoisting, luffing, slewing, and traveling.

The electrical system includes the motor, controller, distribution cabinet, connection lines, signal and lighting devices, etc. It is characterized by high productivity, simple operation, easy maintenance, and reliable operation.

Tower cranes are divided into two main categories: upper slewing tower cranes and lower slewing tower cranes. The former has a higher load-carrying capacity than the latter and in many construction sites.

According to the mechanism, tower cranes can be divided into the moveable type and fixed type.

A fixed tower crane tower is installed in a concrete foundation, or installed in the form of an X-shaped concrete foundation; the moveable type can be divided into crawler, car carrying, tire carrying, and track type.

The fixed type is generally used in the construction of department buildings. According to its variation mode, it can be divided into horizontal boom trolley variation and dynamic boom variation.

Its installation form can be divided into self-lifting, overall rapid disassembly, and assembly. The most widely used is under the rotary, rapid disassembly, rail-type tower crane.

So how is the tower crane raised as the project progresses?

The tower crane is actually installed by workers to grow taller. Before installing the tower crane a foundation needs to be built in the ground in order to be able to bear the weight of the tower and the materials used to build it.

The tower crane is assembled section by section with metal frames.

Those who look closely may find that there is a relatively large metal sleeve under the tower crane cab, which can be set outside the ordinary metal frame, this whole sleeve is called the climbing section, which is equipped with a hydraulic device to climb upwards along the tower body.

When the tower crane needs to be raised, the hydraulic device of the climbing section will be activated, so that the whole top of the tower crane will climb upwards for a certain distance.

And then the horizontal boom will lift the metal frame that acts as the tower body and transport it over to be installed in the climbing section.