Abstract: A table or bench top provides a work surface of high strength that is resistant to impacts, high temperatures, alkalies, acids, flames, and electrical arcs. The top has a core composed of wood strips bonded together in side by side and end to end relation with thermosetting resins, a bottom particle board sheet and a top laminated fabric resin sheet cold bonded to the faces of the core, and side and edge wood finishing strips between the top and bottom sheets surrounding the core in bonded relation therewith. The finished top is especially useful as a work surface for welding, soldering, brazing, and has a high dielectric strength making it especially useful in the electronics industry.

Abstract: This invention is directed to a bi-metallic die construction in which one of the die components includes a plastic flow channel formed essentially entirely in a face layer of metal which has been deposited by submerged arc welding techniques upon a base block of a metal having dissimilar characteristics therefrom. Generally the face layer metal is a hard, abrasion resistant and difficult to machine and accordingly relatively expensive metal such as stainless steel while the base component metal is formed of a more easily machineable less expensive metal such as hot rolled steel. The resultant die structure combines the benefits of lowered cost and heightened flexibility in the selection of various face materials for specific die use purposes.