The basic principles of cranes and other lifting equipment have been established over hundreds of years, for thousands of years are unchanged, since they apply the basic rules of physics. However, this does not mean that the field of lifting is not affected by technological Development. On the contrary!
Constantly evolving
This is progress has been particularly rapid in the last few decades: the use of modern materials and alloys has led to the development of cranes with ever greater lifting capacities; Hans Liebherr created the spire, transforming the skyline of a major city.
The lifting giants have conquered the land and the water equally. In recent years but the direction of development has shifted from chasing legends to increasing security, for which electronics, digitalisation and the latest developments in crane control software provide an excellent basis.
Automation
Automation is already a common solution in various goods handling or even manufacturing systems, and can extend beyond factories and warehouses to cranes.
Several companies are carrying out research and development to to avoid human error or omission in the lifting of loads, the operation of cranes create the self-propelled, automated crane.
It is envisaged that the mobile crane, once completed, will not only be able to be controlled by the crane operator by remote access, but also to move to a given location automatically, using only its sensors and cameras to guide it.
Remote access
Speaking of remote access! Skills shortages are a problem across the industry.
Partly to address this, and partly to improve safety, developments are underway to stabilise remote access for cranes and to develop solutions that allow cranes to be controlled remotely, even from the construction site.
Using the 5G telecom standard, cranes could be controlled from anywhere in the world, in the comfort of an office environment, which is much more inviting than building sites.
This solution would also allow highly skilled crane handling specialists to work on projects around the world without having to travel.
This solution is of course raises questions on the issue of cargo securing and the sharing of responsibility, so in our opinion, time and fine-tuning are needed before its final roll-out.
However, the direction is encouraging and it is almost certain that digitally-enabled solutions will make a big difference in the area of lifting.
