According to one aspect of the invention it is possible to rapidly heat a soldering item by reducing an initially larger volume flow at a constant or increasing temperature, effectively preventing small components from overheating. By using the volume flow of a convection heater to control effective heat transmission occurring on said soldering item, it is also possible to adapt the soldering process in an extremely flexible manner to special requirements by virtue of the fact that adjustment of a modified volume flow can be controlled in a very quick and precise manner.