CRC Industries

It was founded in 1958 after a verbal agreement between Rocket Chemical, the predecessor of the WD-40 Company, and Charles J. Webb II to distribute WD-40 fell apart. Webb then set up a competitor company in Philadelphia, Corrosion Reaction Consultants, Inc., and hired away Rocket president Norman Larsen to lead it.[3] In 1960 it consisted of Larsen, two chemists and five staff.[4] Its first product was CRC Corrosion Inhibitor, also called 5–56, a product comparable to WD-40. The product was reformulated in 1963 as the company diversified to make more specialized products.[3]

The company has been owned by Berwind Corporation since 1981.[3]

CRC's first product, 5-56, is still sold. However, 6-56, a silicone-based replacement, is CRC's current competing product for WD-40.[5]

Brakleen, a tetrachloroethylene (PERC)-based brake cleaner, is one of CRC's signature products. It has gained a cult following due to its dissolving power and has been used off-label for many other purposes, a practice strongly discouraged by health experts and the product's own warning labels. As PERC is illegal in New Jersey and California, a safer but weaker substitute chlorine-free formula mostly made of acetone and heptane is also offered.[6]

CRC's manufacturing is headquartered in Warminster, Pennsylvania with the corporate office in Horsham, Pennsylvania. It markets products through subsidiaries in the United States, Australia, Germany,[7] Belgium, United Kingdom, China and New Zealand.[1][2]

Their facilities in Warminster include a private railroad spur, served by the New Hope Railroad. Traffic on the spur constitutes a sizable portion of the railroad's freight traffic; CRC Industries is their largest freight customer.

• CRC Industries, Inc.