Protective unit to prevent contact with conductive contacts in a withdrawable space of switching device

A protective unit to prevent contact with conductive contacts in a withdrawable rack of a switching device, comprising:

• at least one displaceable protective plate;
• and
• a lever arrangement for operating the protective plate,
• wherein the lever arrangement has two levers which are interconnected in an articulated manner, a first lever being operated by way of the switching device and a second lever being coupled to the movable protective plate, the first lever being displaceable in a first phase of a pushing-in movement of the switching device and being pivotable in a second phase of the pushing-in movement, and wherein a linking joint of the two levers acts simultaneously as the pivot bearing of the first lever, the first lever having a slide block, and two guiding surfaces are formed in the withdrawable rack, the two guiding surfaces form a slideway for the slide block, running in a graded manner in the pivoting direction of the first lever, one of the two guiding surfaces forms two stepping stages for the slide block, the two stepping stages being allocated to the two pushing-in phases and run substantially in the direction of displacement of the first lever, and wherein the setting stage, connecting the two stepping stages, runs in the pivoting direction of the first lever and forms a stop surface allocated to the slide block.