Research has been carried out to characterize personal sampling pump pulsations and their effect on the performance of the 10 mm nylon cyclone. The fluctuation about mean flows equal to 1.2 L/min and 2.0 L/min of four each of three commercially available pumps has been determined. Measurements were made both near the sampling head as well as at the sampling pump without load, since resonance of the air column between pump and sampler was found to alter the fluctuations significantly. The cyclone itself was characterized by measuring the aerodynamic diameter dependent penetration under purely harmonic flow conditions in terms of frequency and amplitude. This information is combined with Fourier analysed pump data in determining the expected effect of given pump characteristics on cyclone sampling of dust of specific size distribution.