The equiaxed microstructure of 316L stainless steel coating was successfully deposited by low pressure plasma spraying (LPPS), which was different from the lamellar microstructure prepared by other thermal spraying technologies. In this article, the effect of substrate temperature during deposition process and post annealing treatment on the lamellar – equiaxed microstructural transition were investigated. The results indicated that the homogeneous equiaxed grains without lamellar boundaries coatings were observed when the deposition temperature was about 900 °C. Completely lamellar microstructural coatings were deposited at the substrate temperature of about 300 °C, and the lamellar microstructure can transform to equiaxed microstructure after annealing treatment. The hardness of equiaxed coating was lower than lamellar coating.