In 1979, Mr. John L. Peterson died of cancer at the age of 46. His widow, Nancy Sanders Peterson, assumed the leadership of the company, only telling customers about Mr. Peterson's untimely death six months later. She wanted them to realize that Peterson Tool Company could and would continue without Mr. Peterson. The company was greater than just one person.

In 1980, we displayed our products at the IMTS and Thriftedge began to catch on. As Peterson Tool Company continued to grow, our product lines expanded beyond the basic Thriftedge. We developed Thriftchange, a quick change tooling system. Thriftchange revolutionized the way inserted form tools could be utilized. Instead of having dedicated components: holders, anvils, clamps and inserts for each part, the components were engineered to be used interchangeably by many parts within a family. Not only did Thriftchange reduce overall tooling cost but when changing these components, adjustment of the cross slide was not needed. The new components compensated for any diameter changes or location changes so tool change time was reduced dramatically. A major tool change went from 8-10 hours to 2-3 hours. The multi-spindle machine suddenly became flexible.