This paper reports an investigation of the effect of Nb additions on the microstructure of TiC–Ni cermets, which is prepared by plasma cladding technique. The composition of the cermets cladding layer was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) in combination with energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was carried out for phase identification. The microstructure has a trend to become finer with the increase of Nb additions, however, when the Nb addition goes to 15 wt%, the ceramic particles become much bigger and cause large amounts of cracks. Then the component variation of different parts of the ceramic particle was analyzed using the EDS, and explained the reason of the variation and why the rim structure wasn't formed.