This concept large lattice boom crawler crane, from industrial designer Jon Pope, offers a new take on elevated cab positioning. It enables a greater range of movement than existing systems, giving the operator a superior view over his work area, while also being easy to incorporate in a multitude of vehicle types.
The crane cab is conceived particularly for special harbor applications such as loading and unloading barges, as it helps the operator to get a better view into a smaller vessel’s hull cargo area. But it could also be useful on busy jobsites, where it would help to increase visibility over large heavy equipment in the work area, thereby improving productivity and safety. Specialty material-handling cranes and excavators might also be able to use a similar solution to gain an even better vantage point than is currently provided in existing cab-lift systems.
The articulated boom is designed to be composed of two closed-box construction boom sections. This configuration is potentially much more rigid than a telescopic boom assembly. It also gets more height with less overall weight in the boom assembly.
The cab system is mounted to the front of the upper-works of the crane, making it easier than conventional single-stage telescopic booms to assemble on cranes with varying tail-swing dimensions. Single-stage telescopic booms need to be mounted on the rear of the crane upper-works; thus a crane with a long tail-swing could use a long telescopic boom, but that same long telescopic boom would be too long and would not fit on a crane with a short upper-works and tail-swing. What’s more, a folding boom takes up less space and can be raised higher than a single-stage telescopic boom of the same size.
