Any recommendation on label printer with ignition?

Ignition
1

We are looking at developing bar coded label functionality in Ignition. So the idea is operator at the end of each operation will hit a button in ignition which will trigger a label that can be stuck to our paper routing card. Is there any suggestion on what printers should we look into? My label is going to be 1 inch by 3 inch (or 4 inch) in size.

2

Zebra has a variety of printers to pick from. We use them at a few locations and they seem pretty widely used in the industrial space. Search for "Zebra" or "Zebra printer" here and you will see many posts here about them - some people even send Zebra API commands directly to their printers from Ignition though depending on your use case that is not necessary, but it can give you very granular control over the print job.

3

We use a Zebra printer. Using a project level script I send ZPL commands to it to print. Here is the code I use,

import sys
from socket import *
def sendToZebra(ip, port, message):
	s = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM)
	s.connect((ip,int(port)))
	s.send(message)
	s.close()
1 Like
4

I've used both Sato and Zebra printers. They both support the API commands or you can install a printer driver on the gateway and use system.report.executeAndDistribute()

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5

We're currently using BarTender Automation Edition with SQL queries. The software is very nice for making what ever label you need, you don't have to mess with ascii printer languages like ZPL or SBPL (unless you have their editor).

We just send the label queue to a db table and BarTender does the rest. You can buy cheaper printers, but with the licensing it's about a wash for the first go round. But if you go through a lot of printers due to wear and tear, it's definitely worth it.