Fmc Corporation

Lyle B Jensen

Leroy L Wittman

Gerald P Berger

Dennis A Jennerjohn

Frank S Foster

C Wayne Powers

A modularized pedestal mount crane having a base frame with a pair of fore and aft extending flanges with a boom pinned to the forward end of the flanges and an engine is mounted on the rearward portion of the flanges. A winch frame, carrying a plurality of winches, is pinned to the flanges and extends over the engine with vertical links connected between the rearward end of the winch frame and the flanges. A gantry is pinned to the winch frame, and cat walks are cantilever from three sides of the base frame, a cab included on one cat walk.

Modularized pedestal-mount crane and method of disassembly

A heavy duty travel crane is disclosed having two power driven mobile units each having an upper works pivotally supported by the lower works and interconnected by a spreader link. A boom and gantry are supported on one mobile unit and a plurality of winches and operator controls for both units are carried by the other unit with a counterweight supported on the spreader link immediately adjacent thereto. The winches are connected to hoists trained over the boom and gantry for supporting a load, and the counterweight is attached to the upper end of the gantry with the adjacent mobile power unit acting as an auxiliary counterweight if the load is of sufficient weight to lift the counterweight off the spreader link.

Heavy duty travel crane

Several embodiments of a crane are described and require a minimum of set up and strip down time. Each embodiment includes auxiliary frame means that is slightly wider in outside dimension than the tracks for supporting the main boom and gantry at its forward end, and supporting counterweights at its rear end with rollers on both ends permitting rotation of the auxiliary frame and vertically movable components supported thereon about a vertical axis. The rollers rest upon a horizontal steel ring supported by the ground during working of the crane, and the auxiliary frame and vertically movable components operatively connected thereto are moved upwardly to provide adequate road clearance when it is desired to move the vehicle from one site to the next. In one embodiment the ring is an inexpensive thin steel ring secured to a previously constructed concrete foundation and permits the relatively narrow vehicle to be driven over a portion of the ring onto and off of each preconstructed foundation. In the other embodiments, the ring is a full depth steel ring which is a vertically movable mobile component of the crane and is elevated with the auxiliary frame for transportation with the vehicle from one site to the next site. The full depth ring may either be provided with foldable side wings to permit movement along a narrow path or may remain in its full width attitude if travel space is not a problem.

Heavy duty crane

An elevating and tilting mechanism for a crane cab having a sub-frame mounted to the upper works, a pair of outer arms pivotally connected to the sub-frame and to the platform, a central inner arm pivotally connected to the sub-frame and the platform to form a parallelogram linkage. A pair of elevating rams connected between the cab frame and the outer arms. A cab is pivotally mounted at its rear to the platform and has a pair of hydraulic tilting rams connected between the platform and the cab.

Elevating and tilting mechanism for crane cab

A removable live mast and hoist unit is disclosed for use with a crane of the type having a pivotal live mast releasably connected to the boom of a crane for raising and lowering the boom. The unit includes the live mast and a boom hoist frame that are rigidly secured together with the boom hoist, reeving, mast bridle and bail all partially enclosed within portions of the mast and a cavity in the frame to protect the reeving and to permit easy removal of the unit without unwinding the reeving.

Removable live mast and hoist unit

A crane has an upperstructure that is mounted on a carrier by a quick-disconnect turntable mounting. The upperstructure can be transferred from the carrier to a transport, and back to the carrier, by a system that does not require an auxiliary crane. A live mast on the crane is used for positioning a front lift assembly and a rear lift assembly for attachment to the upperstructure. The front lift assembly is connected to the upperstructure frame by boom foot pins, and the rear lift assembly is connected to the frame by the counterweight mounting mechanism. These lift assemblies enable vertical movement of the upper structure, and outrigger jacks on the carrier enable vertical movement thereof. Air pad assemblies are provided between the outrigger jacks and the surface supporting the carrier. These air pad assemblies can also be provided between the lift assemblies and the surface supporting the upperstructure. These assemblies enable horizontal movement of either the carrier or the upperstructure with minimal frictional resistance.

Crane upperstructure self-transferring system

An extensible boom has a base section that is pivotally connected to a machinery platform and at least one section that is movable axially relative to the base section. A cable system is provided for extending and for retracting the movable sections. The boom sections can be jammed together in either an extended position or a retracted position to resist compression axially of the boom, and to resist bending transversely of the longitudinal axis of the boom in a generally vertical plane. A live mast is offset from the base end of the boom in a vertical plane. Boom carrying ropes extend between the distal end of the base section and the live mast, while a boom pendant extends between the live mast and the distal end of the tip section of the boom. Support of the boom can be transferred by alternately tensioning and slackening the boom carrying ropes and the boom pendant. The boom is supported by the boom carrying ropes during traveling, unpinning, extension, retraction, and pinning of the boom sections, while the boom is supported by the boom pendant when the boom sections have been pinned together and are ready for supporting loads with the boom.

Growing community of inventors

Cedar Rapids, IA, United States of America

Lyle B Jensen