Basic filtration characteristics including pressure drop, penetration and fractional collection efficiency were investigated for sintered metal fiber filters. Two filters were applied. It was found that the porosity, weight and thickness were same, the air permeability and filtering accuracy were different. The performance test of fabric filter was investigated using a flat sheet filter testing unit, which can be applied to the filter of 300 × 300 mm size. The test dust was AC Fine Dust. The pres-sure drop increased with filtration velocity and dust loading. The initial stage of dust cake formation was a growing process of particle dendrites on a single filament in the pore and the second stage was a bridge formation process with increasing dust loading. The final stage was a process of constant deposition of dust on a fabric surface under heavy dust loading conditions. The penetration sharply increased with filtration velocity in the intial stage of dust loading. It sharply decreased with dust load-ing, but the rate of decrease gradually diminished under heavy dust loading conditions. The pressure drop and penetration have been correlated in terms of operating variables such as dust loading and filtration velocity. The pressure drop and penetration calculated from the correlation equation have been compared with the experimental data and the agreement between the two data was fairly good. The fractional collection efficiency increased with dust loading.