Analysis device for the automatic grading of products, in particular of fruits or vegetables

Analysis device for the automatic grading of products, in particular of fruits or vegetables, moving longitudinally on a conveyor furnished with supports (2, 3) for said products which are suited to masking as little as possible the lower face of the latter, said grading device being characterised in that it comprises in combination:

• punctiform lighting means (4, 8, 12) capable of generating a polarised incident beam,
• means (19) for deflecting the polarised incident beam which are capable of causing said beam to scan the upper surface of the conveyor along a line of light crosswise with respect to the direction of movement of said conveyor,
• first, lateral, reflection means (22, 23), arranged laterally with respect to the conveyor so as to intercept a portion of the line of light and to allow the products to be lighted laterally,
• second, lower, reflection means (28, 29), arranged below the conveyor so as to intercept a portion of the line of light reflected by the lateral reflection means (22, 23) and to allow the lower face of the products to be lighted,
• separation means (6, 10, 14) aligned on the optical axis of the polarised incident beam and suited to separating said incident beam and the depolarised light energy backscattered by the products and the reflection means (22, 23, 28, 29),
• a collection chain (7, 11, 15) comprising sensors arranged so as to receive the back-scattered light energy, and suited to delivering analog signals representative, for each point of each line of light, of the light intensity of said point and
• a processing unit comprising analog/numeric conversion means suited to receiving the analog signals leaving the sensors and to converting said signals into series of numeric values, and calculation means suited to calculating, on the basis of pre-defined programmed criteria, usable items of grading information.