Link-Belt
Link-Belt Cranes is a U.S.-based designer and manufacturer of telescopic and lattice boom cranes for the construction industry worldwide.
Last updated September 15, 2026
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Overview
Link-Belt Cranes, headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, is a leader in the design and manufacture of telescopic boom and lattice boom cranes for the construction industry worldwide. The Link-Belt idea originated in 1874, when William Dana Ewart, a farm implement dealer in Belle Plaine, Iowa, conceived a square detachable "link" for a chain belt. The company's flagship manufacturing facility and global operations center in Lexington spans over 812,000 square feet. Its executive team is led by President Melvin Porter.
History
The Link-Belt idea was born in 1874 when William Dana Ewart, a young farm implement dealer in Belle Plaine, Iowa, conceived an idea of a square detachable "link" for a chain belt — a "linked belt." Ewart recognized that harvesters with continuous chain belt drives made up of square links and flat links would wear unevenly and break in one spot, and once broken the entire chain belt had to be taken back to the barn for repairs, delaying harvesting. As he concentrated on refining a chain belt with detachable links that could be repaired in the field and would wear more evenly, he obtained a patent on Sept. 1, 1874, for an "improvement in drive-chain." In 1875, a small group of men was persuaded to form a corporation, the Ewart Manufacturing Company, to promote this new detachable drive chain — Ewart Detachable Link-Belt. Over the next several years, Ewart pursued his idea of using link-belt chain as a foundation for all types of power transmission and material handling equipment, leading to the founding of the Link-Belt Machinery Company in 1880 and the Link-Belt Engineering Company in 1888. Around the turn of the decade, these fledgling Link-Belt companies developed the ancestor of today's Link-Belt construction equipment — the first wide-gauge steam-powered coal-handling clamshell crane. Through the turn of the century, steam-powered heavy-duty coal-handling cranes evolved into lighter, more versatile locomotive cranes that set the foundation for all future crane and shovel designs.
Products and positioning
Leader in the design and manufacture of telescopic boom and lattice boom cranes for the construction industry worldwide.
telescopic boom cranes
lattice boom cranes
Recent events
Link-Belt 245 X4 Spin Ace wins 2020 Highest Retained Value Award[5]
Reported:
The Link-Belt 245 X4 Spin Ace won the EquipmentWatch 2020 Highest Retained Value Award in the Excavator Crawler Medium category.
Sources5 sources
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