AbstractThe tribology knowledge reported in this paper was obtained during the construction of a sample manipulator for the Textor tokamak and during tests made in relation with the development of a drive mechanism for the ALT II limiter. After some year of operation, the combination steel-bronze coated with MoS2 dry lubrication has proven to be very reliable. The plasma induced chemical vapour deposition of thin films on MoS2 may increase drastically the friction coefficient and lead to seizure effects. Nevertheless, for typical films as used in today's tokamaks ( < 100 nm) only a small increase of the friction coefficient could be detected.The paper deals with two specific applications for the tokamak TEXTOR; it should however be noted, that severe tribology problems occur generally when movable parts are used in plasma devices for diagnostic or other purposes.