Laser cladding, basically a weld deposition technique, is finding applications in many areas including surface coatings, refurbishment of worn out components and generation of functionally graded components owing to its various advantages over conventional methods like TIG, PTA etc. One of the essential requirements to adopt this technique in industrial manufacturing is to fulfil the increasing demand on product quality which could be controlled through online process monitoring and correlating the signals with the mechanical and metallurgical properties. Rapid thermo-cycle i.e. the fast heating and cooling rates involved in this process affect above properties of the deposited layer to a great extent. Therefore, the current study aims to monitor the thermo-cycles online, understand its variation with process parameters and its effect on different quality aspects of the clad layer, like microstructure, elemental segregations and mechanical properties. The effect of process parameters on clad track geometry is also studied which helps in their judicious selection to deposit a predefined thickness of coating. In this study Inconel 718, a nickel based super alloy is used as a clad material and AISI 304 austenitic steel as a substrate material. The thermo-cycles during the cladding process were recorded using a single spot monochromatic pyrometer. The heating and cooling rates were estimated from the recorded thermo-cycles and its effects on microstructures were characterised using SEM and XRD analyses. Slow thermo-cycles resulted in severe elemental segregations favouring Laves phase formation and increased γ matrix size which is found to be detrimental to the mechanical properties. Slow cooling also resulted in termination of epitaxial growth, forming equiaxed grains near the surface, which is not preferred for single crystal growth. Heat treatment is carried out and the effect of slow cooling and the increased γ matrix size on dissolution of segregated elements in metal matrix is studied. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd