Yea you can communicate with the machines, I have done a similar thing at work.

Add the mscomm control to your components.

Depending on the settings that the machine uses you will need to set the properties on the Comm Control. Eg Baud Rate, parity etc.

A good way to test it is to get a com lead and loop from one com port to another on your pc, then send sample strings from one to you application on the other.