Since 1896, Eberhardt of Germany has been engaged in the developing and manufacturing of kneading machinery and thus have been among the pioneers in spiral mixing technology.
Eberhardt’s earliest spiral mixer dates back to 1954.
The Maximat spiral mixers were first introduced at the 1968 IBA held in Stuttgart and at that time were equipped with a round shaped spiral arm.

Eberhardt’s constant searching for innovative technology saw them change the spiral arm from a round profile to a square profile in 1986 and set in such a way as to always have an edge (not a face) showing to the bowl wall when in close proximity.

The square profile proved to reduce both the power required to mix the dough but more importantly, reduced heat rise in the dough.

It was found that the round profile pressed the ingredients and the dough against the wall of the bowl. With both the arm and the bowl rotating, this caused excessive friction, which mandated a powerful motor and in turn caused rapid heat rise with the squashing and tearing of the dough between the two surfaces.

In contrast, the square profile has the same sectional area as a round arm, but a reduction of 19% in the mating surface area between spiral arm and bowl provided less squeezing and friction as the dough is mixed and worked by the rotating spiral arm.
This is especially beneficial when mixing wheat dough’s.

The Maximat square profile spiral arms with four flat faces are also found to better collect ingredients and gather them into the mix providing a further improvement in distribution and mixing time without heat rise compared to a round profile arm.

Another excellent benefit is the considerably reduced damaging effect when raisins, other fruits or nuts are added to the dough

Eberhardt equip their Maximat mixers as standard with both PLC control and continuous temperature monitoring of the dough.
Thus, automatic mixing programs can be stored and either time or temperature can control the kneading process.

A separate motor for turning the bowl negates a complicated gearbox between the spiral arm drive and bowl drive as is common on other mixers.
The two separate motors allow easy reverse direction of the bowl on the low speed when desired, as well as a second higher turning speed.

On removable bowl mixers, the initiating of the mixing program lowers the mixing arm hydraulically into the bowl while at the same time locking the bowl trolley into place.
On completion of the mixing program, the mixing arm is raised automatically and the bowl trolley released or left in position for a following step.

The bowl trolleys move at floor level easily on ball bearing polyamide wheels – no ramp to the mixer required.

Transparent bowl safety covers allow the kneading process to be observed.

Fixed bowl mixers are available in sizes 40, 80,120 and 160kg of dough.
Removable bowl models are available in 120, 160 and 250kg sizes