Fluid Conservation Systems (FCS) is a 40-year-old company that specializes in leak detection; it recently relocated to Happy Valley and is the latest player on the area’s sensor scene. FCS got its start when it invented and filed the first U.S. patent for the leak correlator that it still offers today; and now, FCS has about 500,000 sensors deployed globally, with about 300,000 of them listening for leaks within water networks.
According to Beth Powell, president, “The way our technology works is, we have a number of sensors that will give you the general location of where the leak is, underground, and then we have a product that will pinpoint exactly where the water companies need to dig.”
She added, “A water leak sounds like a note from a flute. Our sensors pick up that vibration and change it into an electric signal. If we have two sensors that can hear the same flute, we can correlate that to where the leak is located. With the sound delay from one sensor to the other, we can figure out the distance.
Powell, a Penn State alum, worked in oil and gas for New Pig Corporation in Altoona for about a decade before a headhunter with FCS’s parent company contacted her. She’s been with FCS for just over a year.
FCS has a few main competitors but is the only solutions provider in the space that works through cellular communication. Rather than service professionals needing to visit equipment and sites to get a reading, FCS’s clients can log into a computer remotely and see where leaks might exist within their water network.
“Originally, the product line included our ground mics and correlators,” Powell explained. From there, FCS’s solutions have advanced for easier and easier data collection. “Now, everything’s connected through the cellular network. [Utility crews] apply sensors that ‘listen’ every night and that have a five-year battery. Every morning when the utility logs in, they can see if any new leaks have popped up… New products are not only listening but, if they hear something, they record a sound file and those sound files correlate with where the leak is located, at the street level.”
Water leaks aren’t something that most of us think about when we fill a glass form the sink or brush our teeth, but they come with substantial costs. Read the Full Article
