Friction welding is the process by which two pieces of metal are fused together by rotating one of them at high speed, then pressing the two together.
Another advantage is that it can be used to join dissimilar materials–say, lightweight aluminum and high-strength steel, like you might see in an aerospace application–which have different melting points that would make them impossible to join by conventional welding methods.
A third advantage is you can weld extremely thick-walled parts together. Imagine trying to get the heat from a blowtorch to penetrate down into something several inches thick; it just ain’t happening. But with friction welding, wherever the two pieces are coming into contact will be joined.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell with Google Hangouts On-Air is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
