Ignition device for a passive retention system

Claim 1

An ignition device for a passive retention system, comprising a housing means, an ignition unit including two plug pins arranged in the housing means, said plug pins having free ends projecting on one side out of a base means for purposes of slidingly receiving a plug-coupling means and being operatively connected on the other side with an incandescent bridge and surrounded thereat by an ignition mixture within a casing means, and protective contact means which protect the plug pins against electrostatic charges by short-circuiting the same prior to an emplacement of the plug-coupling means, characterized in that the protective contact means include a substantially U-shaped elastic clamp means for electrically conductively connecting the plug pins with each other with a non-inserted plug-coupling means, said elastic clamp means being adapted to be automatically opened during an insertion of the plug-coupling means in such a manner that the clamp means interrupts the contact between the plug pins only when the regular ignition circuit has already been closed, said elastic clamp means including two legs interconnected by a clamp back portion which abuts one of the two plug pins with a non-inserted plug-coupling means, each of the two legs terminates in a free end portion which abuts the other of the two plug pins with a non-inserted plug-coupling means, and in that at least one of the free end portions of the two legs is bent so as to surround said other of the two plug pins so as to produce a force component urging the clamp back portion into engagement with said one of the two plug pins with a non-inserted plug-coupling means.