Eugene Scherbakov
Chief Executive Officer at IPG Photonics
Good morning, everyone. I am pleased with our performance this quarter. Second quarter revenue came in at the midpoint of our guidance range despite increased macroeconomic uncertainty, which resulted in project delays and impacted sales and outlook in industrial markets across many geographies. We reported another quarter of solid revenue growth in welding and cleaning applications that were driven by strong sales in e-mobility and handheld welding solutions. Additionally, revenue improved in 3D printing and solar cell manufacturing applications as investment in these markets increased. Sales in flat sheet cutting applications declined year-over-year mostly due to economic uncertainty and increased competition in China and continued to negatively impact on our results. However, cutting sales were up sequentially in China, North America, and Japan. Emerging growth product accounted for 41% of total sales in second quarter.
We saw continued growth in AMB lasers, LightWELD, green and ultrafast lasers, as well as beam delivery; but sales declined in medical and advanced applications as well as in laser-based systems and high power pulsed lasers. We have shipped our first 50-kilowatt AMB laser during the quarter and continued to invest into international sales platforms for LightWELD. As we said on our first quarter conference call, our medical business was impacted by a large customer working through the inventory, which reduced sales in the second quarter. We expect medical sales to return to a more normal level in the third quarter and continue to focus on additional growth opportunities in the medical market. Despite a challenging operating environment, the positive results were driven by our progress in diversifying revenue and reducing our exposure to low margin and high competitive business.
We have been focusing on products and applications, which benefit from global investment in e-mobility and renewable energy, and this strategy is yielding the good result. IPG had another quarter with strong sales in e-mobility applications driven by an increase in sales to geographies outside China; primarily in North America, Europe, and South Korea. EV-related investment in China slowed during the quarter, particularly into traditional prismatic cell batteries, but we are seeing increased investment into new technologies such as large cylindrical cells and also more investment into batteries for storage applications. Our team is working on new business opportunity in foil cutting applications and electric motor assembly. With continued adoption of electric vehicles and growth in energy storage globally, demand for batteries should quickly catch up with recent capacity additions and we expect investment in battery manufacturing in China to be stronger next year.
Meanwhile, we are seeing the increased investment in EV battery capacity outside of China and expect e-mobility orders to remain strong in the third quarter. Our welding sales are benefiting from growth in e-mobility applications where our complete solution, which include AMB lasers and welding heads combined with our real-time weld monitoring and measuring technology, which has become the industrial standard. LDD's real-time measurement can significantly reduce testing times, scrap cost, and failed parts for the customer, making a very strong value proposition and exceptional return on investment given the yield and cost benefits. LDD is also getting great acceptance in applications outside of batteries where the final cost of defect can be very high and lead to significant recalls.
We are proud to deliver multiple solution, which can significantly reduce the environmental impact for our customers, including our high efficiency ECO lasers with industry-leading wall-plug efficiency over 50%, environment-friendly cleaning solutions, and high efficiency laser diode drying and heating systems. During the quarter, we continued to see strong results in our laser cleaning solutions in e-mobility and other automotive and non-automotive applications. Laser cleaning provides sustainability benefits by reducing the use of abrasives, chemicals, and dry ice cleaning. Unlike chemicals, abrasives, and heat-treatment cleaning processes; laser cleaning doesn't impact the material that is being cleaned, does not leave toxic waste, and also create a safer and cleaner environment for employees. It can also significantly reduce water consumption.
And we are seeing increasing interest in our laser cleaning solutions for a number of different processes and applications, including the paint and corrosion removal. Another recently introduced laser solution, which is replacing the less efficient infrared bulbs for the drying and heating, is gaining interest and we have booked our first order for EV battery applications which will be shipped in the third quarter. The drying solutions are well received by customers and are gaining market acceptance because they significantly cut down energy consumption and reduce the environmental impact on legacy processes. And today, I am happy to announce that the Board of Directors has elected Kolleen Kennedy as a new director of the company. I'm looking forward to working with Kolleen and believe she will be a great contributor to IPG's strategy, particularly with our growth in medical applications, given her 25 years of experience in the medical system manufacturing industry. I would like to thank our employees for their strong contribution in the quarter.
And will now turn the call over to Tim to discuss financial highlights.