Experiments on light meson production and pp-bremsstrahlung as planned
for the initial stage at COSY are discussed. Special emphasis will be
placed on near-threshold behaviour where due to kinematics all partic
les are forced into a rather narrow cone around the beam axis. A speci
ally designed charged particle detector system will be used which not
only covers the complete forward hemisphere of 2pi in the laboratory s
ystem but additionally shows maximum resolution in the extreme forward
direction with only moderate cuts in the minimally required energy of
all ejectiles.