Crane History

Crane originated in ancient Rome in 10 BC. The famous architect Marcus Vitruvius once described such equipment in his architectural manual. This machine has a mast with a pulley on the top of the pole. There is a cable to fix the position of the mast. The capstan pulls the cable through the pulley to lift the heavy object. Some super-heavy machines can use two masts to form a herringbone shape to move the hoisted object horizontally, but the amplitude is very small and the operation is very laborious.

It was not until the 15th century in Italy that people invented the jib crane. This equipment has an inclined cantilever with a pulley on the top of the arm, which can be raised and lowered and rotated. It can be considered that until the 18th century, various lifting equipment used by humans still relied on human and animal power as power, and the work efficiency was low. In the mid-to-late 18th century, with the birth of the Industrial Revolution, the steam engine improved and invented by Watt in Britain provided new power conditions for such machinery. The first steam cranes were built in London Dockyard by Glen Engineer Rennie. Armstrong of England converted such equipment in Newburgh Dockyard into a hydraulic one in 1846.

In the early 20th century, tower cranes, the predecessors of modern cranes, began to be widely used in Europe. The chassis, upper mechanism, power system, lifting system, and control system play a key role in the structure and components of the equipment. Understanding the structure of the cranes can better maintain the equipment and ensure the safe operation and extended service life of the cranes.