WD-40 Company is a global marketing organization headquartered in San Diego California, where the original WD-40® Multi-Use Product was invented over 60 years ago.
Above and beyond that legendary, signature blue and yellow can, instantly recognized worldwide, WD-40 Company encompasses a group of brands featuring a full range of high performance products. Spanning maintenance, specialty, and cleaning products for all corners of the industrial realm, enthusiasts, hobbyists and home, WD-40 Company is home to several of the World’s best-known brands.
In addition to the famous WD-40® Multi-Use Product, WD-40 Company offers WD-40® Specialist®, our full line of professional grade specialty products formulated to perform specific tasks; WD-40® BIKE developed for the whole bicycle; the much beloved 3-IN-ONE® Oil; the Lava® and Solvol® brands of heavy-duty hand cleaners, X-14® and 2000 Flushes® toilet bowl cleaners, X-14 bathroom cleaners, Carpet Fresh® and no vac® carpet and room odor eliminators, Spot Shot® instant carpet stain remover, and 1001® specialty carpet care products.
WD-40 Company is home to several of the world’s best-known brands. The brands and product lines we’ve developed, and the brands and product lines we’ve acquired, all do the same thing: they offer above-expectation performance at an extremely good value, aligning with our vision to create positive lasting memories by solving problems in workshops, factories and homes around the world.
In 1953, in a small lab in San Diego, California, the fledgling Rocket Chemical Company and its staff of three set out to create a line of rust-prevention solvents and degreasers for use in the aerospace industry.
It took them 40 attempts to get their water displacing formula to work, but on the 40th attempt, they got it right in a big way. WD-40 was born. WD-40 stands for Water Displacement, 40th formula. That’s the name straight out of the lab book used by the chemist who developed the product.
The first company to use WD-40 commercially was Convair, an aerospace contractor, to protect the outer skin of the Atlas Missile from rust and corrosion. The product worked so well that several employees snuck cans of WD-40 out of the plant in their lunchboxes to use at home.
A few years later, Rocket Chemical Company founder and president Norm Larsen experimented with putting WD-40 into aerosol cans, reasoning consumers might also find a use for the product in their home workshops and garages.
In order to ensure chemical safety in the workplace, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) requires chemical manufacturers and importers to evaluate the chemicals they produce and prepare safety data sheets (SDS) to communicate the hazard information to their customers and consumers. Each WD-40 Company SDS is prepared in accordance with requirements of OSHA. SDS information for WD-40 Company products sold around the world can be found via the links below.
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008 became law in August 2008. WD-40 Company has reviewed the requirements of the legislation to ensure our full compliance.
WD-40 Company has determined that the only products we manufacture that are subject to a mandatory performance standard, for which a certification of compliance is required, are those on this page.
These products must be sold in special packaging that meets the requirements of the Poison Prevention Packaging Act (PPPA). Accordingly, WD-40 Company will furnish its customers of these products with a General Certificate of Conformity that the product is in full conformance with the applicable regulations of the PPPA.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has stated that manufacturers may provide the General Certificate of Conformity by any of several means, including posting it on a publicly available website.