Thermal spraying of cermet coatings is widely used for protection of machining parts against wear and corrosion. These coatings consist of WC particles in metal binders such as Co, Cr and Ni. Three kinds of WC powders with different metal binders (Co, NiCr and CoCr) were sprayed by low power plasma spray system on Al-Si-Cu alloy substrate. Fundamental aspects of sprayed cermet coatings, including (i) the effects of binder type on the coating structure, (ii) the hardness and (iii) the microstructure, were investigated. All cermet coatings have the same phase structure such as WC and W2 C. However, the intensities of these phases are different in each coating, mainly due to the difference in solidification rate in each case. Moreover, the hardness measurements are found to be different in each coating. The results show that, binder type has a significant effect on the physical and mechanical properties of the sprayed coatings.