Abstract: Objective To address the demand for low-cost and high-efficiency repair of gear components in wind turbines, this study explores the influence of process parameters on the repair effectiveness of arc cladding on 18CrNiMo7-6 gear steel. Methods Taking 18CrNiMo76 gear steel, which was commonly used in wind turbine gearboxes, as the research subject, SKD11 gas shielded welding wire was selected for arc cladding experiments. Microstructural analysis and mechanical property testing were conducted to support the research. Results The results indicated that the optimal process parameters for arc cladding with SKD11 welding wire were a welding current of 140 A, a welding speed of 4 mm/s, a wire feeding speed of 8 m/min, and an overlap rate of 40% to 50%. Under these process conditions, the cladding layer exhibited no defects such as lack of fusion or porosity, achieving good metallurgical bonding with the base material. Mechanical testing yielded a bonding strength of 571.53 MPa, with an average tensile strength of 1241.43 MPa and an average bending strength of 1 739.51 MPa for single-layer multi-pass cladding samples. Conclusion The optimized arc cladding process offers lower cost and higher repair efficiency compared to laser cladding, demonstrating the feasibility of this process for repairing 18CrNiMo76 gear steel. This provides technical support and theoretical basis for the repair of wind turbine gear steel components.