Ask five packaging suppliers in India for a quotation on the same closure and you may get five different product names back. It is not obfuscation, it is accumulated trade habit — but it does make comparing prices harder than it should be, and occasionally someone orders the wrong thing entirely.
Here is what the common terms mean.
ROPP cap
Roll-on pilfer-proof. The precise term, and the one to use if you want no ambiguity. It describes the mechanism: an aluminium shell with no thread, which the capping head rolls onto the bottle neck during filling, complete with a tamper-evident band.
PP cap
In Indian packaging, this is almost always short for pilfer-proof cap, and it means the same aluminium closure as above. Suppliers list "Aluminium PP Cap 22 mm", "PP cap 25 mm" and so on.
Pilfer-proof cap
Describes the outcome rather than the method: a closure whose lower band separates on first opening and cannot be put back. In practice, when someone in India says pilfer-proof cap for a glass bottle, they mean an aluminium ROPP cap.
Aluminium screw cap
Accurate but slightly misleading. The finished cap does have a screw thread, so the name fits — but the thread was not there when the cap was made. It was formed on your bottle. A true pre-threaded aluminium screw cap is a different manufacturing route.
Roll-on closure
The same thing, named after the application method. Common in machinery catalogues and in technical documents, less so in purchase orders.
Metal cap, aluminium seal cap, bottle cap
General terms. They will get you to roughly the right shelf but not the right part number. If you use them, add the size and the material: "aluminium cap, 25 mm, EPE lined".
What these names are not
- Crown cap — the crimped, fluted steel cap on a beer bottle. Prised off, not twisted. Different part entirely.
- Tear-off seal / flip-off seal — the small aluminium-and-plastic seal crimped over a rubber stopper on an injectable vial. Related material, different closure.
- Polypropylene or HDPE screw cap — a moulded plastic cap with a moulded thread and a ratchet tamper band.
- Guala cap — a non-refillable spirits closure with an internal valve. More complex and much more expensive.
How to write an enquiry that gets a comparable quotation
A supplier can quote accurately from six lines:
- Closure type — "aluminium ROPP (pilfer-proof) cap"
- Size — the bottle's neck diameter: 20, 22, 25 or 28 mm
- Liner — EPE or latex, or ask for a recommendation with the contents named
- Finish — plain, anodised silver, anodised gold, colour coated, or printed
- Quantity — per order and, if you can, per year
- Contents — what goes in the bottle, which drives the liner choice
If you can add a sample bottle, add it. Every genuine manufacturer would rather measure your neck finish than guess at it.
We issue a dimension sheet for your size with your free samples, and the FAQ covers full forms, HSN codes and sample requests.