In this study, a systematic examination of the oblique impacting of copper particles in cold spraying was conducted by using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method compared to the Lagrangian method. 3D models were employed owing to the asymmetric characteristic of the oblique impacting. It is found that in the oblique impact, the additional tangential component of particle velocity along the substrate surface could create a tensile force and decrease the total contact area and bonding strength between the particle and the substrate. The simulation results compare fairly well to the experiment results. Meanwhile, the asymmetric deformation can result in the focus of the shear friction on a small contact zone at one side, which may rise the interfacial temperature and thus facilitate the occurrence of the possible shear instability. Therefore, there probably exists an angle range, where the deposition efficiency may be promoted rather than the normal angle. Moreover, the particle deformation behavior simulated by the SPH method is well comparable to that simulated by the Lagrangian method and the experimental results, which indicates the applicability of the SPH method for simulating the impact process in cold spraying besides the previously used Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) method. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.