Abstract Tungsten coatings with 1.5 wt.% TiC (W/TiC) were fabricated by atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) and supersonic atmospheric plasma spraying (SAPS) techniques, respectively. The results showed that the typical lamellar structure of plasma spraying and columnar crystalline grains formed in the coatings. Pores located mainly at lamellar gaps in association with oxidation were also observed. TiC phase, distributed at lamellar gaps filled the gaps; and that distributed around un-melted tungsten particles and splashed debris coated the particles or debris that were linked with the TiC at lamellar gaps. The coating and linking of the retained TiC phase prevented the tungsten particles to come off from the coatings. The porosity and the oxygen content of the SAPS-W/TiC were lower than those of the APS-W/TiC coating. The mechanical response of the coatings was strongly dependent on the H / E * ratio ( H and E * are the hardness and effective Young’s modulus, respectively). The SAPS-W/TiC coating with a higher H / E * ratio had a better ability to resist to elastic fracture and better fracture toughness as compared with the APS-W/TiC coating with a smaller H / E * ratio. The thermal conductivity of the SAPS-W/TiC coating was greater than that of the APS-W/TiC coating.