Powder particles applied through a powder nozzle as used e.g. in laser additive manufacturing or cladding processes are heated during their flight through the laser beam. The heating process and the interaction of the particle with the solid substrate were modeled in this work. In addition, the particle interaction with the solid substrate was observed using high speed imaging. At a high temperature and a high speed of the particles, the heat conduction into the base material is not fast enough to solidify the particles due to the short interaction time with the substrate.