Gas generating composition and use thereof in pedestrian protection devices

A pedestrian protection apparatus for a vehicle, comprising:

• an inflator adapted to be arranged outside a passenger compartment of the vehicle to activate a pedestrian protection device for protecting a pedestrian outside a passenger compartment of the vehicle,
• wherein the inflator contains a gas generating composition having a gas yield of at least 85%, the gas generating composition comprising 75 to 98% by weight of guanidine nitrate as fuel and 2 to 25% by weight of a burn accelerator selected from the group of the transition metal compounds, the metal nitrates, metal chlorates, metal perchlorates, ammonium perchlorate and mixtures thereof;
• wherein the transition metal compounds are selected from the compounds of the transition metals Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Zr and Mo;
• wherein the gas generating composition has a burn rate of 3 to 17 mm/s at 20 MPa;
• wherein the gas generating composition exhibits an oxygen balance of −10 % to −27 %;
• and
• wherein the gas generating composition exhibits a combustion temperature of not more than 1650 K.