Piston for an internal combustion engine and method for its production

A method for the production of a piston has the following method steps: (a) providing a blank of a piston base body, having an outer joining surface, an inner joining surface and a circumferential lower cooling channel part that runs between the two joining surfaces, (b) providing a blank of a piston ring element, having an outer joining surface, an inner joining surface and a circumferential upper cooling channel part that runs between the two joining surfaces, (c) forming a circumferential widened region on at least one joining surface, the widened region extending toward the related cooling channel part, (d) connecting the blank of the piston base body with the blank of the piston ring element by way of their joining surfaces, by friction welding, to produce a piston blank, and (e) machining the piston blank further and/or finish-machining it to produce a piston.