Synthetic diamond competes with the conventional cemented carbide (WC–Co) tool material in some applications due to its extreme hardness. However, so far, these materials have not been compared from a life cycle perspective regarding their environmental and resource impacts. The aims of this study are i) to provide detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) results for industrial polycrystalline diamond (PCD) production from diamond grit produced via high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) synthesis and ii) to conduct the first comparative LCA of PCD and WC-Co tools for the cases of wood working and titanium alloys machining. The results show that the main hotspot in HPHT synthesis of diamond grit, which is the main precursor to PCD, is the use of WC-Co in the high-pressure apparatus. In PCD tool production, the electricity input and the use of tungsten and molybdenum contribute the most to environmental and resource impacts. The environmental and resource impacts of the PCD tool production can be reduced with 53–83% if solar electricity and full WC-Co recycling is applied. The comparison shows high environmental and resource improvements when substituting WC-Co tools with PCD tools in wood working, but not in titanium alloys machining.

合成金刚石由于具有极高的硬度，在某些应用中可与传统的硬质合金（WC–Co）工具材料竞争。但是，到目前为止，尚未从生命周期的角度对这些材料对环境和资源的影响进行比较。这项研究的目的是：i）提供通过高压高温（HPHT）合成生产的金刚石砂生产工业多晶金刚石（PCD）的详细生命周期评估（LCA）结果，以及ii）进行首次比较LCA用于木材加工和钛合金加工的PCD和WC-Co工具的制造。结果表明，HPHT合成金刚石砂粒的主要热点是PCD的主要前体，它是在高压设备中使用WC-Co。在PCD工具生产中，电力输入以及钨和钼的使用对环境和资源的影响最大。如果使用太阳能和完整的WC-Co回收利用，则PCD工具生产对环境和资源的影响可以减少53-83％。对比显示，在木材加工中用WC-Co刀具代替PCD刀具时，在环境和资源上有很大的改善，而在钛合金加工中却没有。