Peterson Spring

Established in 1914, Peterson Spring is the largest privately held spring manufacturer in North America. Through designing, manufacturing and supplying springs, snap-rings, wire forms, clips, clamps, stampings, and a variety of sub-assemblies, Peterson Spring has expanded to 12 worldwide locations.

MISSION:

“The mission of Peterson American Corporation is to work with our customers to provide the best products available to the world market. Drawing on our worldwide resources, we will improve the quality and reduce the cost of our products and services through the application of practical, innovative thinking. We will maintain an equitable relationship with our customers, employees, shareholders, and communities.”

Drawing on the work ethic instilled by our founder, while continuing to create the latest product improvements, Peterson Spring is committed to the quality and precision of the products and services provided to its customers.

Peterson Performance Culture:

• Discipline in everything we do
• Hard work, integrity, operational and business excellence
• Innovation by all

HISTORY:

The story of Peterson Spring begins in the 1880’s with the immigration of a young Norwegian blacksmith to America. August Christian Peterson studied blacksmithing – the trade of choice for early spring makers – and gradually rose through the ranks of spring manufacturing in the early 1900’s. Eventually August would come to manage various plants across the Midwest. In 1914, August was prompted to move his family to Detroit and form a company with the vision of meeting a lion’s share of the demand for springs within the railroad industry and the budding automobile industry.

August and his eldest son, Alfred, worked together to start and build the business. Alfred left school after the eighth grade to work with August in the steel mills, where August worked in the mills’ spring plants. Other family members joined the family’s spring business later, after it was somewhat established, but were not basic to the company’s early success. Of August’s three other sons, Sigurd, Conrad and Harold, Sigurd made the greatest contribution. He was a very good mechanic like August, and developed some innovative machines.

Precision Spring would continue to prosper alongside the automobile and other industries with the post-WWII manufacturing explosion. The 1960’s and 1970’s saw the company expand overseas through the purchase of foreign firms and joint ventures. In 1978, the company split into two halves with one renamed Peterson American Corporation. They would eventually purchase the assets of the departed half in 1991 bringing the entire Peterson family of companies back under the PAC umbrella.

Peterson Spring is a proud and founding member of the Spring Makers institute (SMI). Since the institute’s inception in 1933, Peterson Spring has been an active member. In fact, former employees Bud and Pete Peterson, grandson and great-grandson respectively of founder August Christian Peterson, have both served two-year terms as president of SMI. In 1989, Bud received the SMI’s Golden Coil Award for contributions of lasting importance to the spring industry. Numerous Peterson Spring employees have served on SMI committees.

Peterson American Corporation continues to be a proactive industry leader in a continuously changing manufacturing environment. With 13 facilities world-wide, Peterson American provides a geographic footprint that allows for customer focus and competitiveness for all products. All facilities are TS/ISO/QS certified and have numerous customer achievement and recognition awards. Decades of innovating thinking honed in the high-performance automotive market has given Peterson Spring the knowledge necessary to thrive in any field implementing the use of springs. The Peterson family, with dedication and integrity handed down from one generation to the next, continues to put this knowledge to use as our springs are used every day in a wide range of products from lawnmowers to military applications. Much akin to the blacksmiths of old, Peterson’s metallurgists, engineers and designers are modern day artisans in the highly technological art of spring making.