Do you remember being a little kid and staring nonstop at construction sites? Even as an adult, we still stare, amazed by how that tower of a building is being built, or watching a sky high crane move giant, heavy items around like they’re nothing. That amazement is for good reason. Lifting equipment is a crazy, crazy world, and one that remains a bit of a mystery to the general public.

We’re going to look at some of the most impressive lifting equipment out there, and remove a bit of the veil of mystery that surrounds it by doing our best to explain the inner workings of the equipment. Then, maybe the next time you’re standing next to a kid at that construction site, or even another awed adult, and wonder how in the world that got up there, you’ll have a more informed answer!  

Cranes

Cranes are kind of the coolest, aren’t they? Looking at its fragile frame, and seeing how high it can reach and how heavy it can lift, you wonder how on earth it can possibly work! Cranes actually originated long before modern construction, beginning with the Greeks.

The Greeks used crane like machines to lift heavy building materials to build tall structures. The lifting equipment of their time was mostly based on pulley systems, where heavy objects were lifted via stationary anchors, diverting force. If interested, you can read more about pulleys and their specific history, here.  

The crane frame can hold up the insanely heavy objects it does because of counterweights. This balances the load out without toppling it over. When cranes pull something up, they adjust the counterweight to be even on both sides. It stays in place with a big slab of concrete that’s poured at the base of the crane, and stays there for the remainder of the crane’s placement.

When structures are built, they typically start out with various scaffolding to begin the build. Sometimes heavy duty trucks will be responsible for towing in the materials. Eventually though, as the structure grows upwards, cranes will be required to transport the building materials to the top. Cranes are also used to move things horizontally as well, which brings us to the next type of lifting equipment.

Harbour equipment

Harbour cranes are horizontal cranes usually found at shipping ports. They are used to load and unload huge cargo such as shipping containers, timber and more. Ship harbours are some of the busiest places in the world and these cranes are essential to ensuring cargo is loaded safely, efficiently and quickly.

Fun fact: The biggest crane in the world, known as the liebherr, built by the german company Liebherr Group can extend 100 metres high and has the lifting capacity of 1200 metric tonnes. That’s as heavy as nearly 700 cars. Hower the Chinese gantry crane called the Tuaisun Gantry Crane, although not as tall as the Liebher, can lift an impressive 20,000 metric tons!

Helicopter cranes

The Mi-26 helicopter the world’s largest helicopter, built by the Russians, spas nearly the length of a three story building. There’s photos of it online carrying an airplane, so you can imagine its sheer strength and size. The best thing about helicopter cranes is their ability to reach hard to access places.

When natural disasters hit, or catastrophes in remote areas, large lifting helicopters can transport and lift incredible amounts and sizes. In the event of a disaster, huge building beams and piles of concrete that a crane might have helped build, but now are causing serious issues, can be transported out of the mess of the city. Other transportation simply wouldn’t be able to access areas like that without this kind of help.  

Floating cranes

Floating cranes are some of the coolest mechanisms in the world of lifting equipment. Often built on vessels or even built into a ship, they are primarily used for offshore construction. Since they are mobile, they can be driven out to wherever the construction site will be, and are usually extremely large and therefore suited for even the roughest of seas.

Historically, however floating cranes were often used to assist boats and ships. Tasks like replacing ship masts, or later on, lifting heavy guns on board, were most common before the offshore drilling boom.  

Forklifts

Forklifts are essential to the lifting environment. Versatile, easy to operate and relatively cheap compared with other heavy lifting equipment, forklifts pave the way when it comes to everyday lifting. Forklifts were invented in the early 20th century. After World War II, the use of forklifts in private industry increased dramatically. To this day, the forklift has been adapted and changed to suit many different roles, such as electric forklifts, heavy lifting forklifts, narrow forklifts and more.

Jacks

Not to be confused with the game jacks, or the person Jack, or even a small car jack, jacks in the lifting equipment world are the underdog. In reality though, jacks are incredibly underrated, considering that such a small piece of metal can lift something like a car, or even, yes, a house!

Jacks can be manual or hydraulic, or even screw into a home to lift it up. Jacks to lift homes are usually put in place to pull it up from the foundation and prepare it to move locations, or even build a new foundation underneath it.

As you have now seen, there are many different types of heavy lifting equipment, all vital to the world we live in today. Without jacks we’d have a really difficult time changing a tyre on our car; without cranes we’d be limited to chasing the sky when we build. So the next time you’re walking past a construction site, harbour, or even just a warehouse, pay attention and give some credit to the amazing lifting equipment that keeps us reaching for the stars!