Vape cartridge

A vape cartridge — commonly called a cart — is a sealed, pre-filled container holding cannabis oil and an integrated heating element, designed to thread onto a compatible battery. The standard modern cartridge consists of a mouthpiece, a glass (or, in budget versions, polycarbonate) reservoir, a ceramic or cotton-wick atomizer at the base, and a threaded connector — almost always the 510 thread. Typical capacities are 0.5g or 1g, filled with distillate, live resin, live rosin, cured-resin sauce, or CO₂ oil. Early cannabis carts reused e-cigarette hardware with cotton or silica wicks, which burned viscous cannabis oil. Around 2016, porous ceramic heating elements — which distribute heat evenly through a sintered ceramic structure, resist clogging, and preserve terpenes — became the industry standard and remain so. Most carts operate best at 2.8–3.5 volts. Cartridges must meet state hardware and testing standards; illicit-market carts were the primary vector of the 2019 EVALI outbreak, which was eventually linked to vitamin E acetate used as a cutting agent in unlicensed oils. → See also: Distillate, Live resin, Live rosin (Part 3), 510 thread, Atomizer. ---