There are several factors that influence the friction welding (FW) process, i.e. the quality of the welded joint, like the welding time, the contact pressure, the compacting pressure, the friction speed etc. The joining process is additionally complicated if the two different materials are to be welded to each other. The subject of research, presented in this paper, is the welding time of the FW process, since the level of axial and radial plastic deformation of the welded pieces and shortening of the welded part depend mainly on the welding time. The paper first presents some theoretical basics of the FW process and then, in the experimental part, the influence of the process duration is investigated. The two materials that the experimental samples were made of are the high-speed steel and the steel for tempering.