[1][2] 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.

[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.