Chromium (III)-oxide (Cr 2 O 3 ) is a widely used coating material for applications in the printing, paper and textile industry, pumps and mechanical sealing systems. Cr 2 O 3 coatings offer high hardness, excellent sliding wear performance and corrosion resistance. Suspension-HVOF process (S-HVOF) allows the production of dense, finely structured coatings with smooth surfaces and improved mechanical properties. The current work presents a study on the development of ready-to-spray aqueous Cr 2 O 3 suspensions starting from different commercial available powders and the effect of suspension characteristics (particle size distribution, viscosity, stability) and operating parameters (gas composition, spray distance) on the microstructure, microhardness and deposition efficiency of the S-HVOF Cr 2 O 3 coatings. By appropriate choice of the suspension and spraying parameters, thick (> 100 μm) and mechanical stable (microhardness higher than 1500 HV0.3) suspension sprayed Cr 2 O 3 coatings were produced.