Near net shape coating is a trend in thermal spraying being aimed at for several years to lower costs through shortened spray time and reduced after treatment work. Because of better microstructure compared to conventional coatings, the thickness is often also reduced. To characterise the quality of those thin layer systems the standardized tensile adhesive test is not suitable, as the adhesion outweighs the cohesion by far due to reduced quantities of coating defects. To characterize the coatings behaviour under tensile stress, three-point bending tests were performed. As especially thin cermet coatings do not show abrupt catastrophic failure in bending tests, ultrasonic signals being emitted from cracks propagating through the coatings were taken during the tests. Three coating systems (Cr 2 O 3 , Cr 3 C 2 -NiCr and WCCoCr) were investigated in this work using fine grained feedstock powders with three different size distributions per system. The tests showed the negative influence of stress moments in case of the oxide ceramic and the embrittlement of the cermets, especially the Cr 3 C 2 -NiCr, with increasing spraying temperature regime due to increased formation of solid solutions and decarburization. It can be said, that the analysis of acoustic emission during bending tests gives valuable information about how to achieve thin wear and corrosive protecting coatings being qualified for high operational demands.