## 3 Results and Discussion
The microstructure of each section was analyzed by observing the locations marked by boxes in Figure 3. As a result of EDS analysis, the particles with the gray darker than the metal matrix are TiC, and  
Figure 4: Phase analysis result by X-ray diffraction (XRD) results for the coating layer. Figure 3: Cross-section image of coating layer (**a**) EEMMC1.0, (**b**) EEMMC1.5, and (**c**) EEMMC2.0. The squares represent the locations where the magnified microstructure images were taken, and the dotted lines are hardness measurement positions, which are employed in the following figures. the black particles are Al\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{3}\) in BSE mode images [7]. Figure 5 shows the microstructure typically shown in the coating layer under the conditions of Figure 3a, and Figure 5a,c are the microstructures from the top and bottom of the coating layer, respectively. As shown in Figure 5a,c, the metal matrix region had a black particle fraction of 14%. The morphology of the particles showed a dendritic structure. Figure 5b shows the agglomeration regions composed of sub-micron-sized TiC and Al\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{3}\). EEMMC1.5 has a thicker coating layer with more heat input than EEMMC1.0. The microstructure of EEMMC1.5 is shown in Figure 6 by dividing the coating layer into three parts in the depth direction, as shown in Figure 3, and the particle distribution was analyzed as shown in Figure 7. Most of the aggregated area of reinforcing particles seen in EEMMC1.0 disappeared, and the particles were distributed relatively uniformly. The particles formed in the EEMMC1.5 sample have a blocky morphology, indicated by yellow arrows. The blocky particles are a primary TiC formed at high temperature and have an isotropic polygonal shape. These particles are distinguished from secondary TiC particles with needle-like or plate-like shape located at the grain boundary [32]. Blocky particles are distinctly distributed in EEMMC1.5-T. EEMMC1.5-C had several dendritic particles with short secondary arms, and EEMMC1.5-B consisted of blocky particles and dendritic particles where secondary arms were highly developed. Dendritic particles are indicated by white arrows. The particle distribution tends to widen toward the bottom part of the coating layer due to the dendritic growth and dissolution of the particles (Figure 6). Figure 7 shows the area distribution of particles by position in the coating layer. EEMMC1.5-T had the largest number of particles with an area of 2-3 \(\upmu\)m\({}^{2}\) and had a unimodal distribution. Since EEMMC1.5-C had the largest number of particles with an area of 4-5 \(\upmu\)m\({}^{2}\), the particles grew more rapidly than the top part. In addition, the particle distribution of the particles had a bimodal distribution, which increased the proportion of small particles less than 1 \(\upmu\)m\({}^{2}\) and also increased particles with relatively large areas of more than 15 \(\upmu\)m\({}^{2}\). EEMMC1.5-B exhibited the highest fraction of small particles of less than 1 \(\upmu\)m\({}^{2}\), and particles as large as 40 \(\upmu\)m\({}^{2}\) were also found. The lower the cladding layer, the faster the solidification rate and the broader the particle distribution. EEMMC1.5-T showed a relatively uniform distribution and morphology of the particles than the other parts. The Marangoni convection created an outward flow moving back and forth at the top tail [33]. This flow helped to form homogeneous reinforcing particles on the top of the cladding layer. On the other hand, as the depth went down at the cladding layer, the coating had a relatively high cooling rate and solidified rapidly. Thus, EEMMC1.5-B had larger standard variations in particle size and developed a dendritic microstructure. The microstructure of EEMMC2.0 is shown in Figure 8 by dividing the coating layer into three parts in the depth direction, as shown in Figure 3, and the particle distribution was analyzed, as shown in Figure 9. The microstructure has fine dendritic and blocky particles.