A crane is a machine used to move materials both vertically and horizontally, utilizing a system of a boom, hoist, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves for lifting and relocating heavy objects within the swing of its boom. The device uses one or more simple machines, such as the lever and pulley, to create mechanical advantage to do its work. Cranes are commonly employed in transportation for the loading and unloading of freight, in construction for the movement of materials, and in manufacturing for the assembling of heavy equipment.
A dragline excavator is a heavy-duty excavator used in civil engineering and surface mining. It was invented in 1904, and presented an immediate challenge to the steam shovel and its diesel and electric powered descendant, the power shovel. Much more efficient than even the largest of the latter, it enjoyed a heyday in extreme size for most of the 20th century, first becoming challenged by more efficient rotary excavators in the 1950s, then superseded by them on the upper end from the 1970s on.
ACF Industries, originally the American Car and Foundry Company, is an American manufacturer of railroad rolling stock. One of its subsidiaries was once (1925–54) a manufacturer of motor coaches and trolley coaches under the brand names of (first) ACF and (later) ACF-Brill. Today, the company is known as ACF Industries LLC and is based in St. Charles, Missouri. It is owned by investor Carl Icahn.
The Manitowoc Company, Inc. is an American manufacturer which produces cranes and previously produced commercial refrigeration and marine equipment. It was founded in 1902 and, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, markets, and supports mobile telescopic cranes, tower cranes, lattice-boom crawler cranes, and boom trucks under the Grove, Manitowoc, National Crane, Potain, Shuttlelift and Manitowoc Crane Care brand names.
Demag was a German heavy equipment industrial group whose individual companies are now scattered. The Demag name can be today found for example as the Demag Cranes and Components and Sumitomo (SHI) Demag.
Konecranes Oyj is a Finnish company, headquartered in Hyvinkää, which specializes in the manufacture and service of cranes and lifting equipment as well as the service of machine tools.
Terex Corporation is an American company and worldwide manufacturer of lifting and material-handling equipment. Products include those that enable customers to reduce their impact on the environment including electric and hybrid offerings, deliver emission-free performance, support renewable energy, and aid in the recovery of reusable materials from waste. Terex does business in the Americas, Europe, Australia and Asia Pacific.
The Euclid Company of Ohio was a manufacturer which specialized in heavy equipment for earthmoving, particularly dump trucks, loaders and wheel tractor-scrapers. It operated in the US from the 1920s to the 1950s, when it was purchased by General Motors. The firm was later bought by Hitachi Construction Machinery.
M. D. Moody & Sons, Inc. was an American 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 2020 the three Moody companies still in operation are MOBRO Marine, Inc., Dell Marine and Dell Marine Tug and Barge.
Ruston-Bucyrus Ltd was an engineering company established in 1930 and jointly owned by Ruston & Hornsby based in Lincoln, England, and Bucyrus-Erie based in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the latter of which had operational control and into which the excavator manufacturing operation of Ruston & 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.
Manitowoc Cranes is a division of The Manitowoc Company, Inc. Manitowoc Cranes produces five brands of cranes: Grove, National Crane, Shuttlelift, Manitowoc, and Potain. In addition, Manitowoc has two distribution businesses based in the U.S.: Aspen Equipment and MGX Equipment Services.
Tadano Ltd. is the main and largest Japan-based manufacturer of cranes and aerial work platforms, considered one of largest crane manufacturers in the world.
Joy Global Inc. was a company that manufactured and serviced heavy equipment used in the extraction and haulage of coal and minerals in both underground and surface mining. The company had manufacturing facilities in Alabama, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, Australia, Canada, China, France, South Africa, Poland and the United Kingdom. In 2017, Joy Global was acquired by Komatsu Limited and was renamed Komatsu Mining Corp.
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 is a German-Swiss multinational equipment manufacturer based in Bulle, Switzerland, with its main production facilities and origins in Germany.
Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group Co., Ltd. is a Chinese multinational heavy machinery manufacturing company with headquarters in Xuzhou, China. XCMG currently ranks first in the Chinese construction machinery industry, 3rd in the world, 4th in China's top 100 machinery enterprises, and 409th in the world's top 500 brands.
Genie is an American company owned by Chevy 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 Bothell, Washington, United States. The company marked its 50th anniversary in 2016.
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.
LBX is an American industrial company manufacturing excavators, forestry equipment and scrap material handlers.
A lattice boom crawler crane is a crane that gets its name from the W or V shaped lattice design of the boom. The benefit of this design is that it decreases the total weight while still providing maximum support for heavy loads. Other lattice boom crane parts include the crawlers, hoist, cab, sheaves, and wire ropes. Crawlers are the equivalent of wheels on a car—they move the crane along the ground. The hoist is what moves loads up and down. The sheaves make up the pulley system that holds the wire ropes, and the wire ropes extend to latch onto objects.
