I couldnt help noticing this rather bloated hack, the sollution is so much easier and was probably the first change I did. Look into the function display_machform() in the machform.php file.
In the end you see "echo $markup", alter this to "return $markup" and you have solved it all.
$data = display_machform($mf_param);
do whatever you like with $data, and you do not need the ob_start() functions.