The present invention relates to a device for holding or keeping down a document or original material onto a document table of a duplicating apparatus and the like.
In duplicating apparatuses such as an electrophotographic apparatus there has been widely used a device for holding down a document on a document table and comprising a flexible document cover having an edge portion rotatably fitted to a body of the duplicating apparatus. Such a document holding device may be or may not be provided with a frame which supports the document cover in an opened or upright position. When the document is to be set on the document table of the duplicating apparatus having the document holding device without the supporting frame an operator must hold the document cover in the substantially opened position with his single hand or must fully rotate the document cover. At any rate the operation for setting the document on the document table is quite cumbersome. Whereas in the document holding device with the supporting frame which is not interconnected to the document cover the operator has to return the cover and the supporting frame into a closed position by means of two successive operations. That is to say at first the operator must return the cover into the closed position and then return the frame into the closed position. It is known to couple the supporting frame with the cover by means of a handle or grip secured to the front surface of the cover near its free edge portion. By this construction the cover and the frame can be moved simultaneously and they can be returned into the closed position by means of a single operation. However such a holding device is not suitable for pressing down a thick document material such as a book onto the document table. In general the document cover and supporting frame are journaled at a level lower than the upper surface of the document table. Thus when a part of a document larger than the document table is to be duplicated, it is sometimes required to fold the large document.