Friction Welding is a solid-state joint process that produces coalescence of materials under

compressive force contact of workpieces rotating or moving relative to one another to produce
heat and to plastically displace material from the faying surfaces.
Spin welding systems consist of two chucks for holding the materials to be welded, one of which
is fixed and the other rotating. Before welding one of the work pieces is attached to the rotating
chuck along with a flywheel of a given weight. The piece is then spun up to a high rate of
rotation to store the required energy in the flywheel. Once spinning at the proper speed, the
motor is removed and the pieces forced together under pressure. The force is kept on the pieces
after the spinning stops to allow the weld to "set".[1] This technique is also known as inertia
welding, rotational (or rotary friction) welding or inertial friction welding
Linear friction welding (LFW) is similar to spin welding except that the moving chuck oscillates
laterally instead of spinning. The speeds are much lower in general, which requires the pieces to
be kept under pressure at all times. This also requires the parts to have a high shear strength.
Linear friction welding requires more complex machinery than spin welding, but has the
advantage that parts of any shape can be joined, as opposed to parts with a circular meeting
point. Another advantage is that in most instances quality of joint is better than that obtained
using rotating technique.