Link-Belt Cranes is an American industrial company that develops and manufactures heavy construction equipment, specializing in telescopic and lattice boom cranes. Link-Belt is headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, and is a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate, Sumitomo Heavy Industries.

History

The Link-Belt Construction Equipment Company was founded as Link-Belt Machinery Company in 1880 by William Dana Ewart. Ewart was a farm implement dealer in

Belle Plaine, Iowa Belle Plaine is a city in Benton County, Iowa, United States. The population was 2,330 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Belle Plaine was founded in 1862 when it was certain the railroad w ...

. Ewart conceived the idea of a square detachable chain belt system for use in the harvester equipment, for which he obtained a patent on an "improvement in drive-chain", on September 1, 1874. In 1939, Link-Belt Co. purchased the Speeder Machinery Corporation, a crane-shovel manufacturer in the 3/8 yard to 3/4 yard capacity range. Speeder had introduced the first wheel mounted excavator, in 1922. Link-Belt's Crane and Shovel Division merged with Speeder Machinery to form the Link-Belt Speeder Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Link-Belt Co., eventually locating in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In 1955, The Syntron Company, a manufacturer of vibratory feeders, was purchased by Link-Belt, which was in turn purchased by

FMC Corporation FMC Corporation is an American chemical manufacturing company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which originated as an insecticide producer in 1883 and later diversified into other industries. In 1941 at the beginning of US involvemen ...

in 1965. In 1967, the

merged with the Link-Belt Company. The company produced FMC Link-Belt branded cranes and excavators. FMC also produced

fire truck A fire engine (also known in some places as a fire truck or fire lorry) is a road vehicle (usually a truck) that functions as a firefighting apparatus. The primary purposes of a fire engine include transporting firefighters and water to an i ...

fire pumps and pumper bodies, and had an OEM arrangement with Ladder Towers Inc. (LTI) to market aerial ladders. In the early 1980s the

fire apparatus A firefighting apparatus describes any vehicle that has been customized for use during firefighting operations. These vehicles are highly customized depending on their needs and the duty they will be performing. These duties can include firefighti ...

division of FMC tried to expand its role in aerial ladders on fire trucks, leveraging the Link-Belt crane division. FMC was ultimately unsuccessful in its expansion into production of aerial ladders. The FMC Fire Apparatus division was also ultimately shut down in 1990. Then in 1986, the Link-Belt Construction Equipment Company was formed as a joint venture between FMC Corporation and Sumitomo Heavy Industries. In 1998, the excavator products were spun off from the Link-Belt Construction Equipment Company to the

LBX Company In computing, LBX, or Low Bandwidth X, is a protocol to use the X Window System over network links with low bandwidth and high latency. It was introduced in X11R6.3 ("Broadway") in 1996, but never achieved wide use. It was disabled by default as ...

, a stand-alone, joint-venture company formed between Sumitomo Construction Machinery Co. and

Case Corporation The Case Corporation was a manufacturer of agricultural machinery and construction equipment. Founded, in 1842, by Jerome Increase Case as the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company, it operated under that name for most of a century. For anot ...

to market and sell Link-Belt excavators. In 2010, Sumitomo (S.H.I.) Construction Machinery Company acquired full ownership of LBX Company. In 2012 marked the establishment of LBX do Brasil to meet the fast-paced growth of Brazil’s booming excavator construction demands. With LBX do Brasil’s offices, training facilities, and parts depot located in Sorocaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil, LBX do Brasil offers the same world-class support and service to our dealer network and customers in Brazil.

Gallery

File:LinkBeltSteamcrane.jpg, Link-Belt steam shovel crane circa 1890 File:Vintage excavator.jpg, Vintage Link-Belt excavator File:International-FMC Crew Cab - Chaires-Capitola VFD.jpg, Chaires Engine 12-61 GMC FMC File:Ew Market Community Volunteer Fire Department & SW Rescue engine.jpg, 1991 Ford FMC File:US Navy 070821-N-4515N-261 Navy divers from Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit (MDSU) 2 pack their gear in preparation for their return to Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Virginia Beach, Va.jpg, Link-Belt crane on US Navy docks File:Link Belt 348 HYLAB 5 (1).jpg, A Link-Belt 348 HYLAB 5 lattice

crawler crane A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist rope, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It is mainly used for lifting heavy objects and transporti ...

File:Link Belt 348 HYLAB 5 (2).jpg, A Link-Belt 348 HYLAB 5 lattice crawler crane File:Talbert Lowboy Trailer (3).jpg, Base section of a Link-Belt 348 HYLAB 5 lattice crawler crane on a lowboy trailer

References

* Link-Belt Construction Equipment Company website
www.linkbelt.com
* LBX Link-Belt Excavator
www.lbxco.com

External links

* {{Official, http://linkbelt.com/
Locomotive Coaling Stations, Link-Belt Co. booklet of cyanotype photographs, c. 1894
Companies based in Lexington, Kentucky 1880 establishments in Iowa Companies established in 1880 Construction equipment manufacturers of the United States Sumitomo Heavy Industries

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links