pre_text: Business Trends Selected financial results for the past three fiscal years are summarized below: (1) See the section “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below for further discussion of these financial measures. (2) Includes pounds from Specialty Alloys Operations segment, and certain Performance Engineered Products segment businesses including Dynamet, Carpenter Powder Products and LPW Technology Ltd.
table: Years Ended June 30,
table: ($ in millions, except per share data) 2019 2018 2017
table: Net sales $2,380.2 $2,157.7 $1,797.6
table: Net sales excluding surcharge revenue (1) $1,942.1 $1,792.3 $1,558.4
table: Operating income $241.4 $189.3 $121.5
table: Net income $167.0 $188.5 $47.0
table: Diluted earnings per share $3.43 $3.92 $0.99
table: Purchases of property, plant, equipment and software $180.3 $135.0 $98.5
table: Free cash flow (1) $(53.7) $34.7 $(16.8)
table: Pounds sold (in thousands) (2) 267,536 265,620 236,346
question: Analyse this data from a financial earnings document. What was the change in Purchases of property, plant, equipment and software in 2019 from 2018?