cutting steps while the flooring planks described above are manufactured with a backing layer it is contemplated that various core materials may permit the manufacture of flooring planks without the need for the inclusion of a backing layer where such panels are formed in accordance with the present invention the substrate thereof may be formed with structural ribbing designed to add structural stability to the final panel structural ribbing may also be included in panels having a backing layer although it is believed the inclusion of structural ribbing would find more wide spread applications in instances where the backing layer is not formed with the decorative laminate panel by compound injection molding the decorative flooring planks in accordance with the present invention many shortcomings of prior art line processing techniques are overcome for example limited tooling is required for injection molding the decorative laminate flooring planks in addition virtually the entire line now used to manufacture decorative laminate flooring planks could be replaced by a cutting assembly for the decorative laminate wear surface a cutting assembly for the backing layer a preliminary conditioning station for the wear surface and backing layer a plurality of injection molding dies and final processing machinery providing a substantial savings in both space and tooling the result of such a process is a reduction in the tooling required for the processing of decorative laminate flooring planks and a limited number of stations which might break down in fact if the decorative laminate wear surface and the backing layer are cut apart from the injection molding step only the preconditioning step precedes the injection molding of the decorative laminate flooring planks in addition by using multiple injection molding cavities a shutdown of a single cavity slows.