The laser clad coating technique can help to produce metallurgical bonding with high bonding strength between the coating layer and the substrate, which has been gradually applied for hydroxyapatite (HA) coating on metallic substrates. In this study, HA powder is mixed with two different binders, namely water glass (WG) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), respectively, and is then clad on Ti-6Al-4V substrates using an Nd:YAG laser system under various processing conditions. The microstructure, chemical composition and hardness of the coating layer and transition layer of the various samples are then systematically explored. The experimental results show that the coating layers of the various samples all contain both cellular dendrites and rod-like piled structures, while the transition layers contain only cellular dendrites. For all samples, the coating layer consists mostly of CaTiO3, Ca2P2O7, CaO and HA phases, whereas the transition layer contains primarily CaTiO3, Ca(2)P(2)O7, Ti3P, Ti and HA phases. In addition, the transition layer of the WG samples also contains SiO2 and Si2Ti phases. In all of the specimens, the transition layer has a higher average hardness than the substrate or coating layer. Moreover, the transition layer in the WG sample is harder than that in the PVA sample. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.