Technologies and technical specifications for the construction of Italian Padel courts

In the absence of a universally recognized standard for verifying the safety of padel court glass, we offer you the choice between the following types of glass:

Monolithic tempered safety glass

12 mm thick monolithic tempered safety glass in performance class 1C2 according to EN 12600, compliant with all current sports regulations and therefore sufficient to obtain approval of the field by the relevant sports federation.

We have chosen not to offer monolithic tempered glass less than 12 mm thick because it is too fragile and does not guarantee a satisfactory level of ball rebound.

Laminated tempered safety glass

Laminated tempered safety glass with a thickness of 6 + 6 mm, 8 + 6 mm and 8 + 8 mm, all in performance class 1B1 according to EN 12600, therefore compliant with both sports regulations and the requirements of UNI 7697:2021, as well as the requirements necessary to obtain the TÜV SÜD Certification Mark.

As the thickness of the glass increases, the likelihood of breakage decreases and the rigidity of the glass wall increases, which is beneficial for ball bounce.

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We have chosen not to offer plastic glass as it does not guarantee a satisfactory level of ball bounce. We leave the choice between monolithic and laminated tempered glass up to you. Our advice is to opt for laminated glass, which, in the event of breakage, completely eliminates the risk of serious or superficial injuries to players and those in the vicinity of the court.

The choice of laminated glass becomes mandatory if, in the event of the glass walls breaking, the player is exposed to the risk of falling from a height of 1 meter or more.

The correct choice of materials for the glass walls of padel courts is essential both to ensure the correct bounce of the ball and to guarantee the safety of the facility and its users.

The choice must also take into account local sports regulations and building regulations in order to obtain the necessary building permits for the construction of the field and its approval by the relevant sports federation.

The rapid rise in popularity in recent years, both in Italy and Europe, means that padel is a relatively unregulated sector. To date, there is no specific standard for verifying the safety of padel court glass.

Nevertheless, the operator is civilly and criminally liable for the safety of its facilities. In the event of accidents, the operator is exposed to the risk of criminal proceedings for negligent injury and must be able to demonstrate that it has taken all necessary measures to ensure the safety of players, spectators, and service personnel.

From this perspective, the resistance to breakage of the glass walls of the fields and the type of glass breakage are extremely important because, following breakage, glass fragments can strike anyone in the vicinity, falling from a height of more than 3 meters and risking causing injuries and even serious aesthetic damage.

EN 12150 is the European standard that specifies the characteristics relating to tolerances, flatness, edge processing, fragmentation, and the physical and mechanical aspects of thermally toughened monolithic flat glass.

For the classification of glass based on breakage behavior, standard EN 12150-1 refers to standard EN 12600 (pendulum test).

The EN 12600 standard specifies the criteria for measuring the performance class of a flat glass pane when struck by a soft body simulating the impact of a human body (pendulum).

The performance class is expressed in the following form: αβφ

α

α is the glass breakage resistance class, determined based on the height of the pendulum drop at which the glass did not break or broke safely:

α = 1: pendulum drop height 1200 mm
α = 2: pendulum drop height 450 mm
α = 3: pendulum drop height 190 mm

The higher the value of α, the lower the resistance of the glass to breakage.

β

β is the type of glass breakage

β = A: Numerous cracks appear, forming separate fragments with sharp edges, some of which are large. This is typical of annealed glass breakage.
β = B: Numerous cracks appear, but the fragments remain joined together and do not separate. This is typical of laminated glass with an interposed plastic film.
β = C: Disintegration occurs, leading to the formation of a large number of small, relatively harmless particles. This is typical of thermally toughened monolithic glass breakage.

φ

φ is the class of protection against the risk of falling into the void

determined based on the maximum height of the pendulum drop at which the product did not break or broke into fragments that remain joined together and do not separate (typical breakage of laminated glass with plastic film interposed), ensuring a containment capacity that effectively eliminates the risk of the user falling into the void.

φ = 1: pendulum drop height 1200 mm
φ = 2: pendulum drop height 450 mm
φ = 3: pendulum drop height 190 mm

The higher the value of φ, the lower the protection against the risk of falling into the void in the event of glass breakage.

Some National Padel Federations provide additional guidelines beyond those commonly adopted. For example:

The Fédération Française de Tennis (FFT) stipulates that the glass walls of courts must be made of tempered glass with a minimum thickness of 10 mm (12 mm in the case of panoramic courts) or laminated glass with a minimum thickness of 2 x 6 mm.

The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), which is the national governing body for tennis in the United Kingdom, stipulates that glass walls must be made of 10mm or 12mm tempered glass, without distinguishing between monolithic and laminated glass, but states that 12mm tempered glass is preferable as it offers a more solid structure and is preferred by players for its superior rebound characteristics.

The Italian Tennis and Padel Federation (FITP) stipulates that the glass walls of courts must be made of "monolithic tempered glass with a minimum thickness of 10 mm or laminated glass with a thickness of 6+6 mm."

In some countries, there are local regulations that contain additional guidelines.
For example, in Italy, the UNI 7697 standard stipulates that the glass elements of padel courts "must be made of laminated safety glass with a minimum performance class of 1B1 according to EN 12600."

Other Member States, many of which do not yet have legislation on this issue, also hold this rule in high regard.

CEN Technical Committee 250 (CEN/TC250) "Structural Eurocodes" is working to make it a European standard linked to the Eurocodes.

There is a heated debate in Italy regarding the mandatory nature of the UNI 7697 standard. Our opinion is that, even if compliance with the UNI 7697 standard is not mandatory, its application is a guideline for improving building safety.

There are some testing protocols and product certification schemes, strictly voluntary, developed by independent third parties, which, in the absence of a specific reference standard, provide valuable guidance for verifying the safety of padel facilities.

For example, the third-party organization TÜV SÜD, which is internationally renowned for its independence, experience, and reliability, has developed a dedicated test protocol that requires, as an essential condition for the issuance of the TÜV SÜD Product Certification Mark, that the glass walls of padel courts be made of laminated glass with a minimum performance class of 1B1 according to EN 12600.

All things considered, in the absence of a specific reference standard, our recommendations are as follows:

Glass breakage resistance class α

It is definitely advisable to choose glass with resistance class 1 (pendulum drop height 1200 mm). If only to minimize the frequency of glass breakage and the resulting field stops.

Type of glass breakage β

It is essential to avoid using glass with type A breakage, typical of annealed glass (numerous cracks that form separate fragments with sharp edges, some of which are large), as large sharp fragments falling from a height of more than 3 meters could cause serious injury to those nearby. Furthermore, the use of this type of glass is not permitted by the FIP or any local federation, under penalty of non-approval of the court.

The use of C-type breakage glass, typical of thermally toughened monolithic glass (disintegration, leading to the formation of a large number of relatively harmless small particles), although permitted by sports regulations, and therefore sufficient for the approval of the field by the relevant Federation, eliminates the risk of serious injury but not the risk of superficial injuries and consequent aesthetic damage, even serious, which could expose the facility manager to the risk of criminal proceedings for negligent injury. In this case, the existence of more restrictive standards, although not mandatory, but issued by well-known and reliable bodies and organizations such as UNI and TÜV SÜD, could put the operator in a position where they are unable to demonstrate that they have created all the conditions necessary to ensure the safety of players, spectators, and service personnel.

Glass with breakage type B, typical of laminated glass with an interposed plastic film (numerous cracks, but the fragments remain together and do not separate), is the only type that completely eliminates the risk of injury, both serious and superficial, and is therefore the only type that completely protects the facility manager from criminal proceedings for negligent injury.

Class of protection against the risk of falling into the void φ

In most cases, the padel court is surrounded by a wide strip of paving that is coplanar with the playing surface, which effectively eliminates the risk of falling into the void and makes the class of protection against the risk of falling into the void completely irrelevant.

However, there are special cases in which at least a portion of the glass walls of the field face a void of 1 meter or more in height. In such cases, protection against the risk of falling into the void becomes essential and the choice of glass type becomes mandatory. In fact, only laminated glass with an interposed film guarantees that the glass will break into fragments that remain together and do not separate, and therefore has a containment capacity that effectively eliminates the risk of the user falling into the void.

In conclusion, if there is a risk of falling from a height of 1 meter or more, it will certainly be necessary to use laminated glass in performance class 1B1 according to EN 12600.

We cover the welded joints between the metal nets and the metal profiles that support them with a special punched element. This prevents the ball from coming into contact with abrasive surfaces and protects players in the event of contact.

We equip all our fields with lighting systems capable of guaranteeing 390 lux of uniform illumination on the playing surface. We use low-energy LED floodlights that are anti-glare and anti-light pollution, with electrical insulation class 2 and IP 66 protection rating.

We paint the metal components of our fields with thermosetting polyester epoxy powder.

This type of coating is applied dry, using resin-based powders.
The adhesion between the coating powder and the metal occurs thanks to the electrostatic effect generated between the powder and the part to be coated.

Compared to traditional paints, epoxy powder coatings offer better mechanical resistance to impact and abrasion, as well as better corrosion resistance.

We equip our fields exclusively with stainless steel screws with plastic caps to prevent corrosion and protect players in case of contact.

We build our courts in such a way as to ensure perfect coplanarity between the various components, in order to avoid "height differences" that could distort the bounce of the ball, as well as being dangerous for players in the event of contact with the structure.

We weld our metal structures using MIG (Metal Inert Gas) technology. This type of welding uses an inert gas to protect the welding arc during the welding operation.

This process prevents the solder bath from coming into contact with the surrounding atmosphere, which could react with the solder bath itself, reducing its resistance and facilitating corrosion.

In windy conditions, the correct sizing of padel court structures is essential to ensure the safety of the facility and its users.

Wind exerts pressure on the external surfaces of closed structures and on the internal and external surfaces of open structures. These pressures translate into forces perpendicular to the surfaces themselves, which are greater the larger the surfaces are.

The higher the wind speed, the greater the pressure exerted by the wind on buildings.

The action of wind on the individual elements that make up a building must be determined by considering the most severe combination of pressures acting on both sides of each element; the overall action exerted by wind on a building is given by the resultant of the actions on the individual elements.

Calculating the pressure exerted by wind on a given structure is extremely complex and depends on many factors, including the typical climatic conditions of the geographical area where the building is located, its altitude above sea level, the roughness and topography of the terrain surrounding the building, the geometry of the building, and its orientation with respect to the direction of the wind.

For the purposes of dimensioning the construction, the calculation of wind pressures must also take into account the return period of the event, i.e., the average time between two successive events of equal or greater intensity than a specified value.

To calculate wind pressures on a specific building in a specific location, it is necessary to seek the assistance of a qualified technician who will refer to specific international and national standards, including, for example, Eurocode 1 (European Standard EN 1991-2-4, wind actions on structures) and the Italian circular NTC 2018 (Technical Standards for Construction).

These regulations also provide the necessary guidelines for calculating the payback period, which is normally 50 years but can be significantly reduced in the case of temporary installations.

In order to allow you to tailor your investment to your actual needs, without forcing you to take risks or invest in oversized structures, we have diversified our product range to offer you different levels of wind resistance.

All our structures designed for indoor installation guarantee wind resistance. This feature, which is irrelevant in the case of installation inside completely closed buildings, becomes extremely important in the case of installation inside buildings equipped with sliding or liftable side walls, which when open allow wind to enter the building.

Among our structures designed for outdoor installation, you can select the one that best meets your needs, choosing from structures that guarantee wind resistance at speeds of 25, 28, 30, and 36 m/s or less.