A crossed‐beams experiment designed to study charge‐changing collisions between singly charged ions has been modified to extend its applicability to collisions between multiply charged ions in a broader range of collision energies. Computer simulations of the beam transport system and the new electrostatic analyzing units are presented. The ion‐optical predictions are tested experimentally. A data acquisition system that allows measurements of angular differential cross sections in ion–ion collisions is described. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.