A new cyclone separator is proposed which is designed for the gentle separation of particles from a gas phase (with respect to breakage and attrition of the particles) for usual solid loadings (1 < mu < 15) and which is suitable for downer systems. In order to evaluate the quality of performance, test experiments were carried out that gave overall collection efficiencies of up to 99.9% and cut sizes in the range of 10 mu m. Regarding particle breakage and attrition, the new cyclone showed significantly less particle comminution than a comparable conventional cyclone.