Life Cycle Analysis of Diamond Coating of Machining Tools

To begin to identify the environmental impacts of coated cutting tools, lathe cutting inserts were coated with a thin film of diamond. To assess the environmental impacts of the coating process on the life cycle analysis (LCA) of a cutting tool, all chemical processes, including pre- and post-deposition processes and energy expenditures were monitored and recorded for entry into SimaPro LCA software. For the conditions evaluated, the primary deposition process was found to have a carbon footprint of 6.6 equivalent kilograms of carbon dioxide, and the etching process was found to be responsible for 96.8 equivalent grams of carbon dioxide.