The analyser is a joint development with the German University of Augsburg, which had already developed time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS) instrumentation for other industries.
The smoking machine consists of a Photo-TOFMS smoke analyser with a special electron beam pumped rare gas excimer photo-ionisation light source (EBEL), which has been integrated into a Borgwaldt LM2X 2-channel smoking machine.
The first smoking channel of the LM2X is connected to the Photo-TOFMS analyser for on-line analysis, while the second channel allows standard reference, off-line analysis using a Cambridge filter pad or other sampling devices.
Smoke from the cigarette filter holder is sampled continuously with the Photo-TOFMS mass spectrometry system at a flow rate of ~2mL/s. Various relevant components in the cigarette mainstream smoke are ionised by a special VUV-light source (EBEL). After this gentle photo ionisation, the formed ions are accelerated into the time-of-flight mass analyser where they are separated because of their different mass-to-charge ratios.
A typical mass spectrum of tobacco can be generated in ~107s, Borgwaldt KC says. | 
