Patent ID: 8564766

Claim:
A sorting device comprising: an inspection zone for detecting impurities or undesired products in a flow of products moving through said inspection zone with at least one light source to generate a light beam, a drive device provided to move said light beam substantially crosswise in relation to the direction of movement of the product flow, such that substantially all products are hit by the light beam in said inspection zone, wherein the light of said light beam is directly reflected as of the point of impact of the light beam on the products, and is reflected in a scattered manner as of a zone around the point of impact following the diffusion of the light beam's light in the products, at least one detector provided in which the directly reflected light and the light that is reflected in a scattered manner coming from said light source enters at least partly, wherein said detector comprises a sensor element which is divided in at least two detection areas, wherein said sensor element is circular and/or has an at least three-fold rotational symmetry, and the detector generates a detection signal for each detection area corresponding to the intensity of the reflected light impinging upon said detection area, and wherein said sorting device further comprises: a control unit operably connected to said detector to receive said detection signals and generate at least one control signal on the basis of these detection signals and a removal device provided which works in conjunction with said control unit in order to remove impurities or undesired products from said product flow on the basis of said control signal.