9 Types of Cranes That You Must Know

When you are working at height, you need lifting equipment or we called it “Crane”

Crane is a powerful and heavy machine that is used for lifting, lowering heavy objects, machinery, etc with the help of cables and pulleys. Every scale construction project needs a crane. They are also mostly used in factories, port, warehousing, etc.

Cranes have a long history of being a staple in construction that reaches back thousands of years. Records indicate the ancient Greeks invented the first cranes and used them as early as 515 BC. Some reports indicate cranes were used for water irrigation in ancient Mesopotamia, thousands of years earlier. In fact, many ancient structures, if built today, would need to use some sort of crane.

It was during the Industrial Revolution that cranes became integral to the modernization of the world, replacing the manual pulley system with an engine and an operator that preceded them. Today, different types of cranes can be found on almost any construction project, each one specializing in its own specific task.

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Here are common types of cranes in the market.

1. Tower Crane

You can see this everywhere in Singapore. Commonly used in the construction of tall buildings, tower cranes offer amazing lifting capabilities. Due to their size, tower cranes are equipped with an operating cab that controls the entire crane. Tower cranes have their jib extending horizontally from the mast (tower part), which itself rests on a concrete base. There are many types of tower cranes such as flat top, luffing, hammered and etc. 

Due to their size, tower cranes are built along with the building, growing alongside it; once the building is complete, the process is reversed. With their height, ability to lift heavy materials, and various features, tower cranes are an essential tool when constructing a tall building. 

2. Mobile Crane

Mobile Cranes are the most standard and versatile type of crane used in construction today. It contributes the highest market share within the crane segment. The mobile hydraulic crane consists of a steel truss or telescopic boom mounted with a wheeled chassis structure. The boom is hinged at the bottom and can be either raised or lowered by cables or hydraulic cylinders.

It is footprint and mobility make this construction crane so versatile is. In construction situations, it can sometimes be difficult to get close to where you need to hoist the materials. Moving a crane into a position that allows it to lift the material with the correct crane capacity is affected by the footprint of the crane. The footprint is the area required to have the crane set up its outriggers into a position that allows it to hoist the material while inside the crane chart requirements. Normally, it has more than 2 axles.

3. Rough Terrain Crane

You may see a rough terrain crane very similar to a mobile crane. One way to differentiate is rough terrain is only 2 axles with bigger tires which designed for operations off-road. 

The outriggers extend vertically and horizontally to level and stabilize the crane when hoisting. These types of cranes are single-engine machines where the same engine is used for powering the undercarriage as it is for powering the crane. These cranes are ideal for construction sites that have uneven, dirt, and rocky terrain. The mobility and ability of the crane to travel around the site make it an effective support crane for lighter hoists on highway, construction, and infrastructure projects.

Rough Terrain Crane is not allowed to travel on road in Singapore.

4. Crawler Crane

Crawler crane moves with the help of tracks which are also called crawlers. It has many advantages and disadvantages depending on its use. Different from telescopic, most of the telescopic are lattice boom types. Except for crawler telescopic crane, which is not common in Singapore.

Their main advantage is that it can move mostly on any surface of the earth it can even move on soft soils due to its crawlers. Because it transfers its load to a great area. That’s why it can be used at unprepared sites without worrying about anything. Within a similar lifting range, it also has a higher lifting capacity chart than a mobile crane. 

And their main disadvantages are that it is very heavy and the transportation of the crane will cost you some time and cost.

5. Truck Mounted Crane (Lorry Crane)

Truck crane or lorry crane we called it in Singapore. The type of crane is widely used in construction or logistic mainly for transportation. It is a truck or lorry with a bucket mounted with a crane arm. Its main purpose is to self-loading and unloading of cargo from its bucket and transport it to its destination. Outriggers are used to stabilize the truck by extending it horizontally or vertically.

Its main advantage is that it can travel on highways just like any other truck, which makes it easy and less expensive. 

6. Ring Crane

This type of crane is hard to see, even you have been working in Oil and Gas industry for a long time. A ring crane is a form of large construction crane with a luffing jib. It is distinguished by its slew pivot being in the form of a ring-shaped track, rather than a narrow central spindle. The broad base this gives to the slewing section above allows it to slew whilst carrying extremely heavy loads.

Ring cranes extremely rare and require a high level of engineering. There are only a few companies owned ring cranes in the world such as Mammoet, ALE, and Sarens.

Ring cranes are used either when exceptionally large single lifts are essential, or when the ability to perform such lifts would accelerate a construction project sufficiently to make the use of such a specialized crane cost-effective. Other crane types, such as gantry or Goliath cranes may have similar capacities, but the jib reach of the ring crane allows them to work over a large area. 

7. Floating Crane

You can see it as a “mobile crane on the sea”.

A floating crane may be a crane vessel, crane barge, crane ship, or floating crane. It is a ship with a crane specialized in lifting heavy loads which typically used for offshore construction and marine transportation. 

8. Harbour Crane

It is also called mobile harbor or port harbor crane. It is mostly used in seaports to unload or load ships. The flexibility of the machine makes it easy to use it at any place. Its main advantage is, that it is among the powerful material handling cranes. This means that materials will be transported from one place to another safely and with ease.

9. Gantry Crane

A gantry crane is a type of overhead crane with a single or double girder configuration supported by freestanding legs that move on wheels or along a track or rail system. Gantry cranes are usually considered when there is a reason not to incorporate an overhead runway system.
 

These are typically used for an outdoor application or below an existing overhead bridge crane system. Unlike an overhead crane, a gantry crane does not need to be tied into a building’s support structure—eliminating the need for permanent runway beams and support columns. In some cases, this can result in a significant reduction in material costs and can be a more cost-effective solution compared to a similarly specified bridge crane.

We hope the article can give you a quick introduction to understand types of crane. This is just a high-level introduction and each type of crane will have different categories.  

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