Founded by Leonard Petersen in 1966, Petersen Precision has been manufacturing high precision metal parts for more than 50 years. After graduating from Stanford in the late 1950s, Petersen got his start in the data storage industry working for Ampex in Redwood City, California. In 1966, he set out on his own down the street from Ampex and started the metal and grinding business that is Petersen Precision Engineering.

We have been operating out of our current location, coincidentally, across the street from where Ampex once operated, since 1972. By 1978, we had grown so much that a second production facility had to be built to keep up with the demand for our services

By the mid-1980s, Leonard Petersen had become equal partners in Petersen Precision with his longtime friend and original investment partner Phil Olsen. A hands-on partner, Olsen was involved in the business side of our company for many years and ran the company from the late '80s until his retirement in the '90s.

Petersen Precision Today

Today, we are still a privately-held business, co-owned by Phil Olsen and the heirs of founder Leonard Petersen, who continue to serve as active board members. Since 2016 Fred Petersen, Leonard's son, has been the General Manager of the company. Petersen Precision has expanded its capabilities considerably over the years, and we now count fineblanking, EDM and CNC machining, CNC turning, and numerous precision grinding processes among our specialties.

Our 55,000 square-foot, ISO 9001-certified manufacturing facility includes an in-house tool and die shop that provides design, fabrication, and maintenance for all of our fabrication tooling. An on-site engineering staff supports production by offering solutions to make your custom metal parts faster, easier, and less expensive to manufacture. Our team's engineering expertise includes lean manufacturing, Six Sigma based process analysis, DOEs, statistical process control, PPAP, and more.

We produce small to medium sizes precision parts in production volume to our customers' prints. We also offer individual process services to help you achieve the production tolerances your parts require.