2017 was an outstanding year for IPG. Having achieved $1 billion in annual revenue for the first time in 2016, we grew revenue by more than $400 million in 2017 to $1.4 billion. The list of billion-dollar high tech companies that grow annual sales by 40% is very short. And we are pleased to have delivered even stronger growth in backlog, operating earnings and free cash flow. We sold nearly 80% more optical power in 2017 increasing production faster than revenue growth and fulfilling orders with no meaningful change in lead time. This achievement reflects excellent planning and manufacturing execution, for which I thank all of IPG’s employees.
Our success in 2017 was largely driven by the secular shift to high-power products as highpower laser sales increased by 50% in 2017. That growth was driven by three major trends. The first was a shift to ultra-high power laser sources of 6 kilowatts and above. Sales of ultrahigh power lasers more than doubled in 2017, representing more than 30% of our high-power revenue. The world-leading power, compactness, electrical efficiency, and reliability of IPG fiber lasers is driving substantial productivity gains within the cutting, welding and sintering markets. For example, a 10 kilowatt fiber laser cutting system offers five times the productivity of a 6 kilowatt CO2 laser system. This enhanced productivity allows machine shops to shift workloads from inflexible, non-laser punching, stamping, and shearing tools to their fiber laser cutting systems, which are CNC controlled and flexible. In addition, improvements in beam delivery components, system speeds and materials-handling capabilities have enabled end users to take advantage of the greater productivity of our ultra-high power lasers throughout their manufacturing organization.
Secondly, we experienced rapid growth in laser sources of 1 to 2 kilowatts for lower-end cutting systems. We believe these laser cutting systems are beginning to displace non-laser machine tools such as punches and presses, which use inflexible dies that take weeks to build and wear out over time. The upfront cost of these laser-based cutting systems has come down significantly over the last several years, enabled by cost reductions from our OEM partners and IPG’s introduction of new products for this market, including rack-mounted fiber lasers. We believe unit volumes of these lower-end cutting systems have doubled over the last 2-3 years as they provide machine shops with greater flexibility, productivity, and return on investment.
The third major growth driver in our high-power business was in welding applications. Within the transportation industry we are benefiting from the shift to electrically-powered cars, trucks, buses, and other transportation vehicles. We believe electric vehicle battery production drove a rapid expansion of the laser-based welding market in 2017. Our highpower CW and pulsed lasers are used within a variety of battery production applications including cell welding, module integration welding, thin foil cutting and welding of contact points, terminal cleaning, battery case welding, busbar welding and battery integration welding. In addition to the battery, the transition to high-strength, lightweight materials in automotive production to improve fuel economy provide additional opportunities for laser-based welding to take share from non-laser
technologies like resistance spot welding, arc, MIG, TIG and ebeam welding, adhesives, and riveting.
We experienced rapid growth in other product categories as well. Sales of QCW lasers grew 82% in 2017 driven by consumer electronics investments and other fine welding applications. Laser sales into additive manufacturing or 3D printing applications reached a record $50 million in 2017, growing by more than 40% from the year-ago period. Additive manufacturing processes such as laser sintering are now our fourth largest application area. We are seeing strong demand for medium power laser sales into the metal-based 3D printing industry as these systems continue to gain acceptance within the aerospace, automotive, medical device, and general manufacturing industries.
Within newer product categories, sales of highpower, 100 watt and above, nanosecond pulsed fiber lasers increased more than 80% in 2017 driven by a diverse set of applications that include foil cutting and terminal cleaning for batteries, solar cell scribing and drilling, laser trimming for displays, and oxide removal from metals prior to welding. Green pulsed lasers used to improve solar cell efficiency also grew strongly during
the year.
We also delivered rapid growth in sales of beam delivery products and fully integrated systems to drive new applications for laser technology. Our systems business reached $40 million in annual sales driven by macrosystems, which include the ILT business we acquired last year, our seam stepper and our integrated marker and many other applications. We continue to develop new laser technologies and macrosystems for automobile, oil, gas, aerospace and other applications. We sold our first commercial cinema projection systems in 2017. In addition, we delivered double digit growth in beam delivery products, a business that today totals more than $60 million in annual sales. This growth is being fueled by our expanding portfolio of cutting,welding and scanning heads that are uniquely suited for high-power laser applications. Our December
acquisition of LDD further compliments our beam delivery product lineup. LDD is an innovative provider of in-process quality monitoring and control solutions for laser-based welding applications. There has been a very favorable response to this acquisition as it enhances our real-time weld monitoring capability and competitive position.
We continue to see encouraging customer interest in our newest products. Our new ultrafast pulsed lasers expand our addressable market opportunity in the micro materials processing, marking and engraving, medical, and scientific markets. This family of picosecond and femtosecond pulsed fiber lasers overcome the limitations of traditional ultrafast products that are high-priced, bulky, and inconsistent in performance. IPG’s ultrafast products offer a fiber-coupled design with easy systems integration, much higher wall-plug efficiency, a compact footprint, more consistent energy per pulse, a faster cold-start time, and a significantly lower investment and cost of ownership. Combining
ultrafast opportunities with continued progress in UV and visible lasers, medical and dental lasers, unique super high lumen RGB systems, the defense industry, instrumentation, and scientific applications IPG is unlocking multiple potential growth drivers for the next three to five years that will significantly increase our addressable market.
The rapid growth across our entire product portfolio drove record operating earnings of more than $550 million and operating cash flow of more than $400 million in 2017. Our total cash balance exceeds $1 billion providing us ample firepower to invest in new organic and inorganic growth opportunities. Along these lines, we expect to spend $170 million to $190 million on capital investments in 2018 to further expand our business. We remain committed to allocating capital in a manner that maximizes returns and increases shareholder value.
Once again, I would like to thank you, our shareholders, for your loyalty and support. We are very pleased to have delivered our strongest annual growth in six years, a direct result of our scale advantages and our unique business model combining a verticallyintegrated manufacturing operation with broad-based technology and process abilities. This business model enables us to rapidly increase production, reduce
costs and deliver innovation. Looking ahead, we see excellent opportunities to leverage these advantages within both our core markets and new applications, making our fiber laser technology the tool of choice in mass production.
以上摘抄自IPG光电-2017年报
福唐红中国红，福唐智能是一家高科技服务企业，致力于打造激光加工第一平台，首创ASM激光加工概念，贯通激光加工脉络，提供一站式激光加工服务和进出口生意，是您值得信赖的激光加工电商平台。已创立福唐星公益《关爱下一代做更有爱的家长》传播梦想之爱，铸造品牌形象；正筹建“福唐家庭激光俱乐部”传播激光之美，引领科技亲子，铸就福唐梦中国梦。
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