WD-40

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Lubricating oil and water displacement spray

title: "WD-40" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["american-brands", "american-inventions", "brand-name-materials", "petroleum-based-lubricants", "products-introduced-in-1953", "trade-secrets"] description: "Lubricating oil and water displacement spray" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WD-40" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Lubricating oil and water displacement spray ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox brand"]

FieldValue
nameWD-40
logoWD-40 logo.svg
imageWD-40 Smart Straw.JPG
image_upright0.6
captionWD-40 with Smart Straw
typeWater displacer
currentownerWD-40 Company
originSan Diego, California, United States
introduced
website
::

::callout[type=note] the product ::

| name = WD-40 | logo = WD-40 logo.svg | image = WD-40 Smart Straw.JPG | image_upright = 0.6 | caption = WD-40 with Smart Straw | type = Water displacer | currentowner = WD-40 Company | origin = San Diego, California, United States | introduced = | discontinued = | related = | markets = | previousowners = | trademarkregistrations = | ambassadors = | tagline = | website = ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/WD-40.jpg" caption="WD-40 spray can from Germany"] ::

WD-40 (Water Displacement, 40th formula) is an American manufacturer and the trademark of a penetrating oil manufactured by the WD-40 Company based in San Diego, California. Its formula was invented for the Rocket Chemical Company in 1953, before it was renamed to the WD-40 Company. It became available as a commercialized product in 1961. It acts as a lubricant, rust preventive, penetrant and moisture displacer. There are specialized products that perform better than WD-40 in many of these uses, but WD-40's flexibility has given it fame as a jack of all trades.

It is a successful product to this day, with steady growth in net income from $27 million in 2008 to $70.2 million in 2021. In 2014, it was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.

History

Sources credit different people with inventing WD-40 formula in 1953 as part of the Rocket Chemical Company (later renamed to the WD-40 Company), in San Diego, California; the formula was kept as a trade secret and was never patented.

According to Iris Engstrand, a historian of San Diego and California history at the University of San Diego, Iver Norman Lawson invented the formula, while the WD-40 company website and other books and newspapers credit Norman B. Larsen. According to Engstrand, "(Iver Norman) Lawson was acknowledged at the time, but his name later became confused with company president Norman B. Larsen."{{cite book |author=Bobby Mercer|title=ManVentions: From Cruise Control to Cordless Drills – Inventions Men Can't Live Without|url=https://archive.org/details/manventionsfromc0000merc|url-access=registration|access-date=June 28, 2013|year=2011 |publisher=Adams Media |isbn=978-1-4405-1075-5 |pages=181–

In Engstrand's account, it was Iver Norman Lawson who came up with the water-displacing mixture after working at home and turned it over to the Rocket Chemical Company for the sum of $500 (). It was Norman Larsen, president of the company, who had the idea of packaging it in aerosol cans and marketed it in this way.

It was written up as a new consumer product in 1961. By 1965 it was being used by airlines including Delta and United; United, for example, was using it on fixed and movable joints of their DC-8 and Boeing 720s in maintenance and overhaul. At that time, airlines were using a variant called WD-60 to clean turbines, removing light rust from control lines, and when handling or storing metal parts. In 1973, WD-40 Company, Inc., went public with its first stock offering. Its NASDAQ stock symbol is ().{{cite web |title=History |work=WD-40 |url=https://wd40.co.uk/about-us/ |date=January 2017 |access-date=February 18, 2020 |archive-date=February 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200218205052/https://wd40.co.uk/about-us/ |url-status=live

Formulation

WD-40's formula is a trade secret. The original copy of the formula was moved to a secure bank vault in San Diego in 2018. To avoid disclosing its composition, the product was not patented in 1953, and the window of opportunity for patenting it has long since closed.

WD-40's main ingredients as supplied in aerosol cans, according to the US material safety data sheet information, and with the CAS numbers interpreted:

The European formulation is stated according to the REACH regulations:

  • 60–80% hydrocarbons C – C n-alkanes, iso-alkanes, cyclics
  • 1–5% carbon dioxide

The Australian formulation is stated:

  • 50–60% naphtha (petroleum), hydrotreated heavy
  • 2–4% carbon dioxide

In 2009, Wired published an article with the results of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry tests on WD-40, showing that the principal components were C to C alkanes and mineral oil.

References

References

  1. (July 30, 2015). "Q&A WD-40 CEO Garry Ridge explains company's slick success". [[Los Angeles Times]].
  2. (October 21, 2020). "WD-40 COMPANY 2020 10-K".
  3. (31 August 2010). "The Case Against WD-40".
  4. (March 19, 2022). "Statista - WD-40 Net Income, 2008-2021".
  5. Sprekelmeyer, Linda, editor (2006).''These We Honor: The International Aerospace Hall of Fame''. Donning Co. Publishers, {{ISBN. 978-1-57864-397-4.
  6. (Fall 2014). "WD-40: San Diego's Marketing Miracle". The Journal of San Diego History.
  7. "WD-40 History – History and Timeline". WD-40 Company.
  8. (July 22, 2009). "Obituary: John Barry, Popularizer of WD-40, Dies at 84". The New York Times.
  9. "WD-40 History | Learn the Stories Behind the WD-40 Brand | WD-40".
  10. "Our History". WD-40.
  11. ''Changing Times'' (pre-1986) 15.5 (May 1, 1961): p. 36.
  12. (May 1965). "New Materials". Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology.
  13. (January 1969). "New on the Market". Farm & Country.
  14. (2023). "Explore myths, legends and fun facts". WD-40.
  15. (2018-09-14). "WD-40 Company Enlists Armoured Security to Move Top-Secret Formula".
  16. Martin, Douglas. (July 22, 2009). "John S. Barry, Main Force Behind WD-40, Dies at 84". [[The New York Times]].
  17. (March 5, 2019). "SDSUSA".
  18. "ChemIDplus".
  19. (March 7, 2017). "WD-40® Multi-Use Product".
  20. (July 5, 2018). "WD-40® Multi-Use Product".
  21. Di Justo, Patrick. (April 20, 2009). "What's Inside WD-40? Superlube's Secret Sauce".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

american-brandsamerican-inventionsbrand-name-materialspetroleum-based-lubricantsproducts-introduced-in-1953trade-secrets