Thermal spray processes using wire feedstock are advantageous in respect of the achievable deposition rate and efficiency. However, the coating material needs to be provided in wire shape, which limits the material choice significantly. Cored wires permit large expansion of the applicable material spectrum. But the influence of the wire design and chemical composition of the velum and filler material on the process stability and finally the coating properties is currently not known. A high speed CCD camera is used to study the wire melting behavior during high velocity combustion wire spraying (HVCW). The observations during the spraying process are used to deduce a correlation between wire design, processing conditions and resultant coating properties.