The Power of a Tower Crane
Though all of us have seen Tower Cranes before, few of us know their real capabilities and how much they can actually lift. The maximum load of that a usual Tower Crane can lift is 18 metric tons or equivalent of 39,690 pounds of weight. But if the load is positioned at the end of the jib or the working arm, the Tower Crane cannot lift that much weight because the closer the load is positioned to the mast or the tower, the more weight the Tower Crane can lift safely.
The Tower Crane has a specifications when it comes to maximum unsupported height which is 265 feet or equivalent to 80 meters, maximum reach which is 230 feet or 70 meters, maximum lifting power which is 19.8 tons and counterweights of 20 tons. The Tower Crane also uses two limit switches to make sure that the operator does not overload the Crane. These are the maximum load switch and the load moment switch. The maximum load switch monitors the pull on the cable and make sure that the load does not exceed 18 tonnes, while the load moment switch makes sure that the operator does not exceed the tonne-meter rating of the tower crane as the load moves out on the jib. That is why it is very critical to operate this massive machine. The Tower Crane operator has to be very skilled at what they does because there is a lot to risk when you are swinging 18 metric tons of load hundreds of feet above the ground.
