Patent 11754048 was granted and assigned to National Oilwell Varco on September, 2023 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Tower erection systems and methods utilizing a load-sharing support member (LS support member) are disclosed. The LS support member can have a first end coupled to a crane tower and a second end configured to repeatably couple to the upper-most tower section of a partially assembled tower stack during assembly. During lifting, a portion of the vertical load is transferred to the partially assembled tower stack.