In this paper, laser cladding of Fe-TiC composite coating on AISI 1030 carbon steel is investigated using a numerical and experimental method. Correlation between temperature distributions and formed microstructures of the deposited material are studied. Numerical and experimental results show that the distribution of the TiC particles within the deposited tracks varies according to the local temporal cooling rates. By increasing the substrate average temperature and thus decreasing the cooling rates, the TiC particles distribution becomes less uniform and larger dendrites are formed. Due to the lower cooling rates at the end segment of the deposition, clusters of TiC particles are detected at the top of the clad. It is shown that although higher cooling rates result in relatively more uniform TiC particles distribution, they are the potential source of micro-crack formation across the deposited layers. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.