A State College-based firm that manufactures devices that track the operational fitness of industrial machinery has been conducting a pilot program with the Altoona Water Authority, hoping the authority will become a full-fledged customer.

The pilot cost the authority $200, but over the last six months it has saved the authority perhaps $42,000 in avoided machinery repairs, 34 man-hours that might have been expended and an undetermined amount of equipment downtime, based on early warnings about problems that might have otherwise led to breakdowns at the Westerly Sewer Treatment Plant, according to KCF Technologies National Sales Manager Nick Rocchio, who spoke to the authority board at a meeting Thursday.

Staff invited KCF to make Thursday’s presentation with the possible intention to ask the board at budget time to approve a longer-term arrangement with the company to monitor equipment all through the organization, officials said.

KCF makes devices that attach magnetically to equipment, periodically measuring the heat they emit, along with their vibrations — plus the frequency of those vibrations — while also producing graphical readouts that company analysts can interpret to determine when a problem is brewing, according to Rocchio.

The analysts can see anomalies and make educated guesses as to their causes, which workers can then investigate.

Many machinery issues result from lubrication problems, according to Rocchio.

Issues revealed with authority equipment by the project include overgreasing of a dryer motor, the wrong drain plug being routinely pulled on a motor bearing and deterioration of bolts for a bracket on mixing apparatus within a tank.

In the case of the deteriorated bolts, the repair was cheap and easy to correct –unlike the failure that would have resulted had the situation been left unaddressed, according to Rocchio.

In another case, KCF devices revealed the need to run a centrifuge past its normal stop time to get rid of excess material, so that the next startup would be smooth — a policy that’s likely to extend the life of the centrifuge, according to Rocchio.

It makes sense to use the KCF devices only on equipment where the value of early warnings exceeds the cost of replacement or major repairs, Rocchio said.

It’s too early to say whether a potential arrangement with the 25-year-old company would involve purchase of the troubleshooting equipment or a service agreement, said authority General Manager Mark Perry.