Crawler Cranes, Everything you need to know

Cranes are primarily designed to perform weight-lifting, load and unload construction materials, excavate earth materials, and other various construction operations. It is mainly used for lifting heavy things and transporting them to other places. It can also be used both to life and lower materials and to move them. This equipment uses one or more simple machines to create a mechanical advantage and thus to move loads beyond the normal capacity or capability of a human being.

During the early times, Ancient Greek invented the first known construction cranes and was powered by men or beasts of burden, such as donkeys. These cranes were used for construction of tall buildings. While larger cranes were later invented, employing the use of human treadwheels, allowing the lifting of heavier weights. The earliest cranes were constructed from wood, but cast iron, iron and steel took over with the coming of the Industrial revolution.

Civilization has led to the evolution of cranes. Cranes are now equipped with cables and pulleys used in construction to lift and lower items as well as in manufacturing heavy equipment. Each type of crane is designed and manufactured to work efficiently in a specific site situation.

There are four important crane parts. First is the Boom. It is a long arm that is used to move objects and an important part of the crane. Second is the projecting arm of a crane that allows the boom to extend called Jib. Counterweight is also an important crane part. These crane spares are the stabilizers located near the cab’s exterior which maintains balance when lifting heavy loads. It can also be referred to as weights and can weigh up to several tons. And lastly, is the Rotex gear. It is a large gear that enables the crane to rotate and maneuver load.

A crawler crane is a crane mounted on an undercarriage with a set of tracks which is also called crawlers that provide stability and mobility without the need of an outrigger. Basically, it is a tracked vehicle which has a crane mechanism attached to it. Furthermore, this type of crane has the capacity to work on every type of ground surface because of its specially designed tracks.

The propulsion system and the tracks are the main crawler crane parts. Other parts include engine and the control cabin which are located on top of the tracks. Parts of a crane in general like boom, hook and jib are also present.

One of the advantages of crawler crane is that it can move around the site and lift heavy loads with minimal set-up since it is stable on its tracks. Also, it is capable of moving with load. But because of its size and weight, a crawler must be dismantled first to be able to transfer it to another site, which in turn is an additional expense. Also, because of its weight, it moves very slowly on the ground. It is recommended to use crawler crane machine in projects requiring long duration usage at a single site.