Link-Belt Cranes hosted their week-long CraneFest 2024 on September 16-20 at the company’s headquarters in Lexington, Kentucky. Held every three years, the event brought together over 1,100 attendees through four sessions of two days each.
Each group started with dinner and drinks at Fasig-Tipton, North America’s oldest thoroughbred auction company. In the spirit of the site’s storied history, attendees bid on scale model sets that included a Link-Belt lattice crawler, telecrawler, all-terrain crane, telescopic truck crane, and rough terrain crane.
The auction came with a unique twist — each night’s winner pledged to donate their bid amount to the charity of their choice, with a total of over $61,000 raised for various organizations.
CraneFest’s second day began with a presentation honoring the company’s 150th anniversary.
September 1, 2024, marked the anniversary of the original patent that evolved into what today is known as Link-Belt Cranes. That patent was awarded in 1874 for “an improvement in drive-chain” to William Dana Ewart, a farm implement dealer in Belle Plaine, Iowa. Ewart conceived the idea of a square, detachable link for a chain belt. At the time, harvesters used continuous chain belt drives that would wear unevenly and break in one spot. Once broken, the entire chain belt needed to be replaced. Ewart’s idea created a detachable link that wore more evenly and could be repaired in the field.
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In 1875, the Link-Belt Company was founded, making September 2024 through 2025 the anniversary of several key milestones for Link-Belt Cranes.
After the presentation at CraneFest, attendees were bussed to the production plant for a comprehensive tour that showed exactly what it takes to build a Link-Belt crane. The tour showcased Link-Belt’s recent manufacturing investments, including a new formed boom fixture and table milling and boring machine used for lattice boom production.
After the tour, Link-Belt presented a crane show featuring their full catalog and introducing the new 225-ton 225|AT all-terrain crane.
Designed, built, and tested in Lexington, Kentucky, the 225|AT features a longer reach, larger capacities, and more counterweight than its predecessor, the ATC-3210, while maintaining excellent transportability, the company said.
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The five-axle 225|AT includes a six-section latching boom, two-piece hydraulic offsetable SmartFly, 8-foot heavy-lift jib, one or two 25-foot lattice fly extensions, and a 334-foot maximum tip height with attachment.
Designed to optimize roadability, the 225|AT features 118,000 pounds of maximum counterweight, a 29,392-pound maximum winch line pull, and a maximum line speed of 450 feet per minute.
