CraneFest 2024: A celebration 150 years in the making

October 15, 2024

Sept. 1, 2024, marks the 150th anniversary of U.S. Patent No. 154, 594, the original patent that’s evolved into what today is known as Link-Belt Cranes. The following year in 1875, the Link-Belt Company was founded, making September 2024 through 2025 the anniversary of several key milestone dates for Link-Belt Cranes going back 150 years.

Editor’s note: On Sept. 1, 1874, a U.S. patent was awarded for “an improvement in drive-chain” to William Dana Ewart, a young farm implement dealer in Belle Plaine, Iowa. Ewart conceived an idea of a square detachable “link” for a chain belt … a linked belt. Harvesters with continuous chain belt drives made up of square and flat links would wear unevenly and break in one spot. Once broken, the entire chain belt had to be replaced. Ewart’s “improvement in drive-chain” created a detachable link that could be repaired in the field and would wear more evenly.

CraneFest 2024

After a week of festivities at Link-Belt Cranes’ world headquarters in Lexington, Kentucky, distributors, customers, and employees put a wrap on CraneFest 2024. Over the course of five days beginning Sept. 16, 2024, and running through Sept. 20, 2024, over 1,000 people were on-site to see Link-Belt’s full range of products and, most notably, two new entries to Link-Belt’s product offering — the new 65-ton (60-metric ton) 65|RT rough terrain crane and the all-new 225-ton (220-metric ton) 225|AT all terrain crane.

Each session began with a reception and a live auction at Fasig Tipton in Lexington, Kentucky, one of the oldest thoroughbred auction houses in North America. Link-Belt donated four sets of scale models (each set included a lattice crawler, telecrawler, all terrain crane, telescopic truck crane, and rough terrain crane) to be auctioned at each session, raising $61,000 for various charities throughout the week.

The next morning, attendees arrived at the Link-Belt campus for a facility tour, showcasing capital improvements such as Link-Belt’s major investments in its manufacturing process, including a new formed boom fixture and table milling and boring machine used for lattice boom production. This preceded a live demonstration of Link-Belt’s entire product line, which highlighted the day.

“CraneFest is an opportunity to get up close and personal with Link-Belt. You erect a temporary booth at Bauma and ConExpo — and those are great events — but you really learn the most about a manufacturer when you see it in action. We talk about continuous improvement a lot, but Link-Belt never sits still. You walk through our facility today — You see the evolution of our processes. Simple, common-sense things like assembly or how we store and house parts, investment in new tooling, and elimination of waste,” said Senior Vice President of Marketing, Sales, and Customer Support Bill Stramer.

Guests from all over the world visited Link-Belt for facility tours and a chance to see Link-Belt’s live demonstration of its complete product lineup, featuring 28 models on display for customers to approach and observe with the Link-Belt team on hand to answer questions.

“CraneFest is a chance for everyone in the company to celebrate what we do here. We of course do it for our worldwide complement of customers, but it is also very important to our employees,” said Director of Production Mike Clevenger. “The live demo is what really stands out to me and everyone I talk to. Seeing that much completed product on display really instills a lot of pride in everyone at Link-Belt.”