Cannabis vape filler requirements: what your filler needs from you

What this page covers, and what it does not

Empty Vapes sells empty hardware. We do not fill anything, we do not handle cannabinoids and we do not advise on what goes into a cartridge. This page is written for a brand that already has its own filling partner, and it is about one thing: the hardware information that partner needs from you.

A filler is setting equipment against a physical object with dimensions, and they need those dimensions from the party who bought the object. The practical test is simple: if a question a filler asks you can be answered from a hardware specification sheet, it belongs here. If it cannot, it belongs with your filler and your own compliance advisers.

The hardware fields a filler asks for

Eleven fields, all obtainable from your hardware supplier. Fill this in once, keep it with the SKU, and send it as a document rather than answering questions one at a time by email.

Hardware fields a contract filler needs, and where each one comes from

Field	Why the filler needs it	Where you get it
Hardware SKU and revision	The line is set up against a specific part, not a description	Purchase order and the part marking
Intake hole diameter and count	The smallest openings in the base, and a dimension their equipment is set against	Specification sheet
Core type and construction	Identifies the part the specification is describing and what a correct unit looks like inside	Specification sheet
Coil resistance	Their post-fill functional check needs to know what a normal reading is	Specification sheet
Capacity, nominal and intended fill	Nominal capacity names the size; the intended fill volume is what the run is set to	Ask the hardware supplier for both
Tank material	Handling and cosmetic reject criteria differ between glass and polymer	Specification sheet
Thread type and tolerance	The unit has to mate reliably with their fixtures and with your battery	Specification sheet
Mouthpiece fitting method	Press-fit and screw-on are two different capping operations with different equipment	Specification sheet
Overall dimensions and tolerances	Fixtures, trays and your finished packaging all depend on them	Specification sheet or drawing
Inbound packaging format	Whether units arrive in trays, tubes or bulk changes how the line is fed	Hardware supplier, per SKU
Hardware lot identifier	The first link in the traceability chain to the finished unit	Delivery documentation and the carton marking

If the only document you hold is a web listing, stop and ask the hardware supplier for the specification. A listing is written to sell. Our spec sheet guide sets out what a usable one contains.

The handover, step by step

1. Fix the SKU and revision. Not "1 ml ceramic cartridge" but the supplier's part number plus any revision marking on the part itself. Two parts sharing a description do not always share a dimension.
2. Send the specification, not a product page. Dimensions, tolerances and materials, on a document with a version on it.
3. Confirm the thread and the mechanical fit. Give the thread type and the tolerance it is made to. Threads that share a name do not always interchange, which is the subject of 510 thread tolerance.
4. Confirm the fill route and the sealing method. Press-fit or screw-on, capped in batches or singly, and whether the intake carries a shipping plug that has to come off first.
5. Confirm the capacity figure and how it is measured. Ask the hardware supplier for the intended fill volume and for the reason behind any difference from the nominal figure, then pass both on rather than translating the nominal number into an instruction yourself.
6. Send the documentation pack. Copies, not originals. Contents below.
7. Agree lot identification before the first unit is fed, not afterwards.
8. Send samples from the lot that will actually run. A sample from a previous delivery proves the design and says nothing about the pallets on the floor. See hardware sampling.
9. Fix change control and reject handling in writing. Both are cheaper to agree than to argue about.

Inspect the hardware in your own warehouse before it goes to the filler, so a cosmetic or dimensional problem is found there rather than on their line. See the incoming inspection checklist.

Lot identification is the part people skip

Traceability is a chain, and it only works if every link is written down at the moment it is made. The chain runs: hardware lot as delivered to you, units issued to the filler, the filler's batch, the finished unit, the outer pack that reaches a retailer.

Three questions settle it. What identifier does the hardware carry on arrival, and is it on the part, the inner pack or only the carton. How does the filler record which hardware lot went into which of their batches. And what appears on the finished unit so a complaint can be walked backwards.

Do it before a run rather than after one, because the case where you need it is always the bad case. A hardware fault that shows up months later is answerable if you can name the affected units and unanswerable if you cannot. Traceability of a finished consumer product placed on the EU market sits under the General Product Safety Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/988. What it requires of your specific product is your own compliance work; our guide to the GPSR responsible person covers that ground.

The documents to pass on

• Material declarations for the parts in the air path, per part rather than as a headline. Why that list is longer than most specifications admit is set out in air path purity.
• RoHS and REACH documentation, in the versions that name the SKU you are running.
• Battery documentation where the format carries a cell, under the EU Battery Regulation, with the transport documentation that came with it.
• The specification sheet and drawing, versioned, so both sides point at the same document.
• Your artwork and marking requirements, if the filler applies anything to the unit or the pack.

Send copies and keep the originals. You are the party placing the finished product on the market, so the complete set belongs in your file rather than at a third party. What a supplier should hand you in the first place is covered in supplier documentation.

Change control between three parties

There are three companies in this arrangement and only one of them sees the whole product: you. A hardware supplier may treat a revision as routine and a filler will run whatever arrives. Neither is positioned to notice that a changed part has made your documentation describe something you no longer sell.

So write one rule into both contracts. No hardware change reaches the filler without passing through you first. Then hold two consequences: re-sample after any change you accept, and check what the change touched in your own file. That side is covered in changing hardware supplier.

Agree the reject rule at the same time. Hardware scrapped on the line is hardware you paid for, and in the disposable and pod formats it contains a cell, so it cannot simply be binned. Count it, reconcile it against what you shipped in, and agree who disposes of it.

Stock 510 cartridges and empty disposables ship with specifications and with CE, RoHS, REACH, Battery Regulation and WEEE documentation on request; the market registrations stay with whoever places the finished product on the market. See compliance.

Frequently Asked Questions

What hardware information does a contract filler actually need?

The part number and revision, the intake hole diameter and count, the core type and construction, the coil resistance, the capacity and the intended fill volume, the tank material, the thread type and tolerance, the mouthpiece fitting method, the overall dimensions, and how the hardware is packed on arrival. Everything on that list is a hardware fact you can obtain from the hardware supplier, and none of it is a judgement you have to make.

Who holds the hardware documentation, the brand or the filler?

Both, and for different reasons. The filler holds copies for their own records of what they ran. You hold the originals because you are the party placing the finished product on the market and your technical file has to describe the product you sell. Send copies to the filler and keep the file yourself rather than letting the only complete set live at a third party.

What happens if the hardware supplier changes something mid-programme?

It has to come to you before it reaches the line. A revision that a hardware supplier considers minor can change a dimension the filler's set-up depends on, and it can also change what your own documentation describes. Write a change control rule into both contracts so that no hardware change reaches the filler without your sign-off, and re-sample after any change you accept.

Sources

• Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety (GPSR), the official text on EUR-Lex.
• Directive 2011/65/EU on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS) (recast), the official text on EUR-Lex.
• Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), the official text on EUR-Lex.
• Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 concerning batteries and waste batteries, the official text on EUR-Lex.
• Directive 2012/19/EU on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) (recast), the official text on EUR-Lex.

Trade guidance for B2B buyers, not legal advice. Empty hardware only, no cannabinoids and no e-liquid; Empty Vapes does not fill hardware and does not advise on anything that goes inside it. B2B trade only, 18+ / 21+ per market. The buyer is responsible for the fill, for finished-product compliance and for product registration in their market.