American Crane Corporation

Last updated
American Crane Corporation
Subsidiary of Terex
IndustryConstruction Equipment
Financial Services
PredecessorAmerican Hoist & Derrick
Founded1882 (1882)
FounderFrank Johnson, Oliver Crosby
Headquarters Wilmington, North Carolina, United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Ronald M. DeFeo, Chairman and CEO
Products Cranes
Parent Terex

American Crane Corporation is an American manufacturer of construction cranes based in Wilmington, North Carolina. It manufacturers lattice boom crawler cranes with capacities ranging from 50 to 275 tons. The American Crane Corporation was founded in 1882 as the Franklin Manufacturing Company, and in 1892 the name changed to American Hoist & Derrick. The company manufacturers terrain cranes, crawler cranes and tower cranes. In 1998 American Crane Corporation was acquired by Terex for $27 million. [1] The purchase of American Crane Corporation brought Terex a manufacturer of lattice boom cranes. [2]

Crane (machine) type of machine

A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist rope, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It is mainly used for lifting heavy things and transporting them to other places. The device uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of a human. Cranes are commonly employed in the transport industry for the loading and unloading of freight, in the construction industry for the movement of materials, and in the manufacturing industry for the assembling of heavy equipment.

Wilmington, North Carolina City in North Carolina, United States

Wilmington is a port city and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States.

Terex American manufacturer

Terex Corporation is an American worldwide manufacturer of lifting and material handling solutions for a variety of industries, including construction, infrastructure, quarrying, recycling, energy, mining, shipping, transportation, refining and utilities. The company's major business segments include aerial work platforms, construction, cranes, material handling & port solutions and materials processing. Terex operates manufacturing facilities throughout the world. Terex offers financial products and services to assist in the acquisition of Terex equipment through Terex Financial Services.

Contents

History

American Hoist & Derrick headquarters of St. Paul, Minnesota in 1895. AmericanH&D95.jpg
American Hoist & Derrick headquarters of St. Paul, Minnesota in 1895.

Beginnings: 1884–92

The Franklin Manufacturing Company was established in 1884 by Frank Johnson and Oliver Crosby in St. Paul, Minnesota. One year later Franklin Manufacturing Company changed its name to American Manufacturing Company. A wire rope clamp designed to loop wire cable without the losing the integrity of the wire was invented by Oliver Crosby in 1886. [3] American Manufacturing Company invented further enhancements to the construction industry by establishing steam-powered hoists in 1889 and the largest electric hoists, up to 15 hp.

American Hoist & Derrick (AmHoist): 1892–1985

In 1892 American Manufacturing Company became known as American Hoist & Derrick for the next 106 years. The first mobile crane, the Traveling Derrick, was invented in 1895. It consisted of a revolving derrick and steam hoist mounted on a rail-car like wheels. The ditcher, a flatcar-mounted crane designed to excavate soil on either side of a railroad, was invented by Oliver Crosby in 1904. [4] The first crawler was established in 1923 and made cranes mobile. The company became international when the Yokohama Warehouse was constructed in 1905. [5] Major construction projects such as the Panama Canal and Mount Rushmore used cranes from American Hoist & Derrick. [5] American Hoist & Derrick reached 467 on the Fortune 500 list with a total revenue of $464.2 million. [6]

Panama Canal Large artificial waterway in the Republic of Panama, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

The Panama Canal is an artificial 82 km (51 mi) waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit for maritime trade. Canal locks are at each end to lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial lake created to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal, 26 m (85 ft) above sea level, and then lower the ships at the other end. The original locks are 34 m (110 ft) wide. A third, wider lane of locks was constructed between September 2007 and May 2016. The expanded canal began commercial operation on June 26, 2016. The new locks allow transit of larger, post-Panamax ships, capable of handling more cargo.

Mount Rushmore Mountain in South Dakota featuring a sculpture of four US presidents

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is centered on a sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills in Keystone, South Dakota. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum created the sculpture's design and oversaw the project's execution from 1927 to 1941 with the help of his son Lincoln Borglum. The sculpture features the 60-foot (18 m) heads of Presidents George Washington (1732–1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). The four presidents were chosen to represent the nation's birth, growth, development, and preservation, respectively. The memorial park covers 1,278.45 acres and is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level.

<i>Fortune</i> 500 Annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine

The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along with privately held companies for which revenues are publicly available. The concept of the Fortune 500 was created by Edgar P. Smith, a Fortune editor, and the first list was published in 1955. The Fortune 500 is more commonly used than its subset Fortune 100 or superset Fortune 1000.

American Crane Corporation

In 1985 American Hoist & Derrick changed its name to Amdura. Also in that year a group of investors purchased the business. The result was a new company called American Crane Corporation. In 1998 Terex acquired American Crane Corporation. [7] American Crane gradually built its market share after the 1998 acquisition with an estimated 70 crawler cranes purchased in 1999. [8] [9]

Jacksonville, Florida Largest city in Florida

Jacksonville is the most populous city in Florida, the most populous city in the southeastern United States and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968. Consolidation gave Jacksonville its great size and placed most of its metropolitan population within the city limits. As of 2017, Jacksonville's population was estimated to be 892,062. The Jacksonville metropolitan area has a population of 1,523,615 and is the fourth largest in Florida.

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Dragline excavator large vehicle used for lifting, especially in the process of mining: basically an excavator which drags its bucket to fill it

A dragline excavator is a piece of heavy equipment used in civil engineering and Surface mining.

Textron American industrial conglomerate

Textron Inc. is an American industrial conglomerate based in Providence, Rhode Island. Textron's subsidiaries include Arctic Cat, Bell Helicopter, Textron Aviation, and Lycoming Engines. It was founded by Royal Little in 1923 as the Special Yarns Company. In 2018, Textron employed over 37,000 people worldwide. The company ranked 208th on the 2018 Fortune 500 of the largest United States corporations by revenue.

Overhead crane material-handling equipment

An overhead crane, commonly called a bridge crane, is a type of crane found in industrial environments. An overhead crane consists of parallel runways with a traveling bridge spanning the gap. A hoist, the lifting component of a crane, travels along the bridge. If the bridge is rigidly supported on two or more legs running on a fixed rail at ground level, the crane is called a gantry crane or a goliath crane.

The Manitowoc Company, Inc. is an American Fortune 1000 manufacturer of cranes and, until 2016, food service equipment. The company was founded in 1902, and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On March 4, 2016, the company announced that it had completed the spin-off of its food service equipment operations into a new publicly traded company, Manitowoc Foodservices.

Bucyrus-Erie company

Bucyrus-Erie was an American surface and underground mining equipment company. It was founded as Bucyrus Foundry and Manufacturing Company in Bucyrus, Ohio in 1880. Bucyrus moved its headquarters to South Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1893. In 1927, Bucyrus merged with the Erie Steam Shovel Company to form Bucyrus-Erie.

Hoist (device) device used for lifting or lowering a load

A hoist is a device used for lifting or lowering a load by means of a drum or lift-wheel around which rope or chain wraps. It may be manually operated, electrically or pneumatically driven and may use chain, fiber or wire rope as its lifting medium. The most familiar form is an elevator, the car of which is raised and lowered by a hoist mechanism. Most hoists couple to their loads using a lifting hook.Today, there are a few governing bodies for the North American overhead hoist industry which include the Hoist Manufactures Institute, ASME, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. HMI is a product counsel of the Material Handling Industry of America consisting of hoist manufacturers promoting safe use of their products.

Konecranes Oyj is a Finnish company, headquartered in Hyvinkää, which specialises in the manufacture and service of cranes and lifting equipment. Konecranes products are made for industries handling heavy loads meaning ports, intermodal terminals, shipyards and bulk material terminals.

Euclid Trucks company specialized in heavy equipment for earthmoving

The Euclid Company of Ohio was a company specialized in heavy equipment for earthmoving, namely dump trucks and wheel tractor-scrapers, that operated from the United States of America from the 1920s to the 1950s, then it was purchased and converted into a section of General Motors and later on by Hitachi Construction Machinery.

M. D. Moody & Sons, Inc.

M. D. Moody & Sons, Inc. was a privately owned construction equipment distributor and heavy machinery service company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. The firm was established in 1913 by Maxey Dell Moody who wanted to serve the needs of road construction businesses by distributing construction equipment. In 1946 the firm was incorporated to M. D. Moody & Sons, Inc. and by 1980 under Maxey Dell Moody, Jr. diversified into the Moody companies Moody Truck Center, Moody Light Equipment Rental, Moody Machinery Corporation, Moody Fabrication & Machine, Dell Marine, and MOBRO Marine, Inc. In 2009 M. D. Moody was forced to file for Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code bankruptcy and became defunct in 2013. As of 2017 the three Moody companies still in operation are MOBRO Marine, Inc., Dell Marine and Dell Marine Tug and Barge.

William Sellers American businessman

William Sellers was a mechanical engineer, manufacturer, businessman, and inventor who filed more than 90 patents, most notably the design for the United States standard screw thread. As president of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sellers proposed the adoption of a system of screw threads which was easier for ordinary mechanics and machinists to cut than a similar design by Joseph Whitworth. For many years, he led the machine tool firm of William Sellers & Co., which was a very influential machine tool builder during the latter half of the 19th century.

Ruston-Bucyrus

Ruston-Bucyrus Ltd was an engineering company established in 1930 and jointly owned by Ruston and Hornsby based in Lincoln, England and Bucyrus-Erie based in Bucyrus, Ohio, the latter of which had operational control and into which the excavator manufacturing operation of Ruston and Hornsby was transferred. The Bucyrus company proper, from which the Bucyrus component of the Ruston-Bucyrus name was created, was an American company founded in 1880, in Bucyrus, Ohio.

Oliver Farm Equipment Company

The Oliver Farm Equipment Company was an American farm equipment manufacturer from the 20th century. It was formed as a result of a 1929 merger of four companies: the American Seeding Machine Company of Richmond, Indiana; Oliver Chilled Plow Works of South Bend, Indiana; Hart-Parr Tractor Company of Charles City, Iowa; and Nichols and Shepard Company of Battle Creek, Michigan

Manitowoc Cranes is a division of The Manitowoc Company, Inc in the United States. Manitowoc Cranes produces five brands of cranes: Grove, National Crane, Shuttlelift, Manitowoc, and Potain and has two service brands, Manitowoc Crane Care and Manitowoc Finance.

Link-Belt Cranes

Link-Belt Cranes is an American industrial company that develops and manufactures heavy construction equipment, specializing in telescopic and lattice boom cranes. Link-Belt is headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, and is a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate, Sumitomo Heavy Industries.

Liebherr Group company

The Liebherr Group is a Swiss multinational equipment manufacturer based in Switzerland with its main production facilities and origins in Germany.

Genie (Terex) American manufacturer of construction lift equipment

Genie is an American company owned by Terex which manufactures work lifts and platforms used in construction, maintenance, warehouse stocking, and equipment installation. Founded in 1966 by Bud Bushnell, the company operated independently until acquired by Terex in 2002. Genie operates in locations worldwide, headquartered in Redmond, Washington, United States. The company marked its 50th anniversary in 2016.

Henry Harnischfeger German entrepreneur

Henry Harnischfeger was a pioneer in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin mining industry.

Atlas GmbH

The Atlas GmbH is a medium-sized construction machinery manufacturer based in Ganderkesee. The company mainly manufactures wheeled excavators, two-way excavators and crawler excavators in various weight and performance categories, as well as loading cranes and medium-sized wheel loaders.

References

  1. Brezonick, Mike. "The Quite RESURRECTION OF TEREX CORP". versalifteast.com. Diesel & Gas Turbine Publications. Retrieved September 7, 2015.
  2. "Wilmington". terex.com. Archived from the original on September 18, 2015. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  3. "OLIVER CROSBY – 2005 INDUCTEE". minnesotainventors.org. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  4. "OLIVER CROSBY – 2005 INDUCTEE". minnesotainventors.org. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Inventory of the Modern Methods of Loading Logs Brochure and Photographs, circa 1904". foresthistory.org. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  6. "American Hoist & Derrick". fortune.com. Fortune 500. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
  7. "American". terex.com. Archived from the original on August 11, 2015. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  8. Bishop, Bill. "Growing pains". cranestodaymagazine.com. Cranes Today. Retrieved September 7, 2015.
  9. "AMERICAN HOIST AND DERRICK Co". vannattbros.com. Retrieved September 15, 2015.