A soldering apparatus for forming a plurality of solder joints in printed circuit boards, the soldering apparatus comprising: a soldering module configured to perform wave soldering or selective soldering on a printed circuit board using a set of operational parameters; and an inspection module configured to optically detect defects in the printed circuit board after soldering; wherein the soldering module is configured to transmit values of the operational parameters to the inspection module; wherein the inspection module is configured to transmit a preconfigured signal to the soldering module when a predetermined number of at least one type of defect has been detected by the inspection module for a preselected number of consecutive printed circuit boards soldered by the soldering module; and wherein the soldering module is further configured to automatically stop soldering or to automatically adjust a value of one or more of the operational parameters known to be associated with the detected at least one type of defect upon receiving the preconfigured signal from the inspection module.