This investigation experimentally assesses the dust collection performance of a stationary-guide-vane swirler separator. Design parameters such as blade geometry (i.e., shape and number of blades), front and back cones, separation distance and collection gap width were all varied and their influence on collection efficiency determined. Accordingly, the effect of inlet velocity and, consequently, centrifugal field, on dust separation characteristics was also studied. It was shown that collection efficiency is responsive mainly to the size of the collection gap and a twofold increase in average airflow velocity does not produce a noticeable improvement in the recovery of particles. All other parameters studied do not alter the performance of the separator at all, as long as they fall into the range of operating conditions used in this work.