Engineering under protective atmospheres or in vacuum allows the production of materials and components, where the absent of oxygen is an essential requirement for a succesful processing. In the current study on non-ferrous metals it is revealed, that tribo-oxidation and the resulting increased abrasive wear are the dominant wear mechanisms, which can be supressed by processing in an extrem high vacuum adequate environment (XHV-adequate). To investigate the wear mechanisms and the formation of surface layers of non-ferrous metals (aluminum, copper and titanium), an oxygen-free environment was created by using silane-doped inert gas (1,5% vol. SiH4 in argon). The investigations have revealed that the ambient atmosphere has a significant influence on the tribological properties and thus on the friction/wear behavior. By suppressing the oxidation under full exclusion of oxygen, a reduction of the tribochemical wear could be shown, which is accompanied by a reduction of the wear volume. In XHV-adequate atmosphere, the investigations of the microstructure and the chemical composition showed that thermal exposure led to the formation of various silicides on the surface of the samples, resulting in novel friction-reducing layers