Every year, worldwide, hundreds of millions of bottles of the most prestigious brands of spirits are counterfeited; they are refilled with dangerous domestic or industrial products, which in many cases leads to dramatic consequences.

It is a phenomenon that continues to grow, provoking irreparable damage to the image of the companies in question, not to mention the loss of revenues, which is estimated to be over €350 billion at world level.

For 60 years, the Guala Closures Group has been working on cutting-edge research applications to design and produce safety closures that reduce the risk of counterfeiting to a minimum, by preventing the “refilling” or replacement of the product.

The Group has developed an extensive range of solutions, including customised closures to meet the needs of the market and its customers: these range from the simplest “Tamper Evident” technologies to more complex valve systems, sometimes using up to 13 components in a single closure

This indicates a device that shows a bottle already opened or not original. There are various types of Tamper-Evident system.

TE device with bridges

This TE system is widely used in standard safety closures. The closure is perforated at intervals around its circumference, forming a series of “bridges”.

When the closure is unscrewed for the first time, the bridges break, and leave a small plastic ring around the bottle neck. The customer can both feel and hear this action. When the bottle is resealed, this small ring remains detached from the closure, proving that the bottle has already been opened.

Automatic external TE band
This is usually a visible band external to the closure. When the closure is correctly unscrewed, the band breaks and falls off, in a single piece or two pieces depending on the model. When the bottle is sealed again, an empty space is evident in the area where the band originally was.

This provides the proof that the bottle has been opened.

Automatic internal TE band
This type of TE device is not usually visible to the consumer until the bottle is opened. When the closure is correctly unscrewed, a coloured band appears around the base of the closure.

When the bottle is sealed again, the coloured band is then visible around the circumference of the closure, giving the consumer indisputable proof that the bottle has already been opened.

Tear-off TE band
This type of TE device entails an external band, usually with a tab to facilitate tearing.

To open the bottle, the consumer has to first completely remove the band. Once the band has been removed, the closure can be unscrewed as usual.

The deformation of the TE band means that it cannot be easily replaced.

Cap cover with tear-off TE band
This type of TE device entails an external cap cover that completely encloses the non-refillable closure. To open the bottle, the consumer has to first remove the cap cover by tearing it around the circumference or by sliding it up and down. In this way, the cap cover is destroyed.

At this point, the closure can be unscrewed as usual. Because the cap cover has to be destroyed to be removed, any forced opening of the bottle creates an evident change to the product’s appearance, therefore providing indisputable proof that the bottle has already been opened

Valves or internal devices have been designed to make it difficult to refill the bottle. They comprise 1,2,3 or more valves that guarantee easy and linear pouring.

Basic protection system

• A one-way valve, a non-refillable fitment for a medium/high level of protection
• A specifically-designed pourer shape strops the product dripping down the neck
• Controlled flow when pouring

Advanced protection system

• A very high level of protection for markets in which there is a high risk of refilling
• A very complex valve system, with up to three different valves and plastic or glass balls
• Controlled flow when pouring

“Snap-on”
A capping system which secures the closure onto the bottle by means of vertical pressure.

“Roll-on”

A capping system which secures the closure onto the bottle by means of rollers that bend a component of the closure under a bead of the bottle.

“Screw-on”

A capping system which secures the closure onto the bottle by means of screwing.