Restricting flash spread when welding housing halves of cartridge together

摘要

A cartridge comprises a pair of housing portions having an opening at a seam formed between the housing portions, a memory chip accessible via the opening to permit electrical contact to be made with the memory chip, and a protuberance projecting from one of the housing portions and welded to the other housing portion within a cavity of the other housing portion. Since a flash which is formed at the weld can spread towards the seam including in the vicinity of the opening, the protuberance and the cavity are mutually dimensioned to restrict the flash substantially to within the cavity. This prevents the flash from spreading into the seam and bulging outward at least in the vicinity of the opening, which could interfere with formation of the seam and making electrical contact with the memory chip.