Application assistance needed, autoprinting batch reports

So i have a customer that is interested in printing a tag on each pallet of product that contains a batch number and any alarms that were generated during creation of the batch automatically.


Here's the details of the setup to give you a better idea of whats going on:
1 controllogix processor with 2x17 slot racks control the mixing and batching functions with 3 panelview plus terminals.

The customer has purchased a videojet printer to print the batch number on each 65 lb bag of powder as it exits the bagging machine. From what i've read it looks like this can talk ascii so im going with a ascii to ethernet/ip gateway to send the batch data to that printer. i dont think that should be too much of a problem.

The bag moves on a conveyor where a robot palatalizes the bags then the palet moves on a conveyor to a stretch hood then a little further down where it awaits a fort truck operator to take the pallet. By this time there should be a formatted pallet tag with the company logo, batch tag, and any alarms generated during the batch sitting on a printer for the operator to affix to the pallet.

I'm thinking i need to add a workstation to the mix with software that can read the data from the plc, import it to a template and print it on command of the plc processor. Maybe there's a better route to go?? I've only used factory talk view ME.. Can factory talk view SE on the workstation accomplish this?

I'm open to any ideas, also note that there's a possibility that they may want historical tracking of batches on a database in the future including history of alarms, batch size, etc. if its possible to kill two birds with one stone....

Thanks!

FTView SE and Crystal Reports can do what you want, with some VBA, but if this is a new application, I can't advise strongly enough to stay as far away from FTView SE as possible. There are far superior and much more stable products out there that can also accomplish the same goal.

If you insist on using FTView SE, the basic procedure is to create an always updating, hidden window that ONLY runs on a single machine (generally the server in a multi-client application). That window should set up the tag groups for reporting, and have a numeric display that triggers a VBA event on change. In the event, you pass your information to Crystal Reports, have it print a report, and reset the flag tag to zero.

What other software would you recommend? Wonderware seems like it would be overkill.. I've herd some people talking about Ignition which would be cheaper.. does anyone know if you can flag a report to print automatically with that software?

automation direct is also offering scada software called point of view.. anyone played with that?