A sorting device which is suitable for sorting parts by means of air blasts and which includes at least one sorting unit which includes a valve support fitted with sorting valves. Each sorting valve is capable of optionally connecting a sorting passage ending in a sorting nozzle to a feed passage and of disconnecting it therefrom. In addition, several or all of the sorting passages of the sorting unit are—independently of the sorting valves—connected to a common purge air passage, so that purge air can flow through them without any involvement of the sorting valves, with the result that no impurities enter the sorting passages.