Padel Court Fence Factory: Inside the Bologna Production Line That Ships 60 Courts a Month
When a buyer asks us to visit our padel court fence factory, they usually expect a single large building with rows of welding stations. What they find instead is a four-building campus in the Bologna industrial zone where wire arrives as coil stock on one end and finished, palletized, container-ready court kits leave the other. This article walks through the production line at XTZ Padel — the equipment, the quality control gates, and the throughput numbers that let us commit to 18-day lead times on standard kits.
building 1 — wire drawing and mesh welding
Low-carbon steel wire rod arrives in 1.2-ton coils. The first step is drawing — pulling the wire through a series of dies to reach the target 4mm or 5mm diameter. Our drawing bench runs four lines in parallel and produces roughly 18 tons of finished wire per shift. The drawn wire feeds directly into the welding line, a 12-station automated mesh welder that produces 2.5m × 4m panels at a rate of one panel every 90 seconds. Every panel receives a unique serial number printed on the edge wire, which we trace through the entire production process.
building 2 — post fabrication and galvanization
Posts and rails are cut, drilled, and welded in building 2. We use certified S235JR and S355JR steel sourced from Italian mills within 80km of our facility. Post fabrication includes welding base plates, cap plate fittings, and bracket saddles — every weld is performed by certified welders and inspected visually plus with magnetic particle testing on a sampling basis. After fabrication, posts and panels move together to the galvanization line.
building 3 — hot-dip galvanization
Our galvanization line is a 12m long, 1.5m deep zinc bath operating at 450°C, certified to EN ISO 1461. Every batch is tested for coating thickness at nine points per piece, with a minimum acceptance threshold of 70 microns for standard products and 100 microns for coastal-grade. A monthly third-party audit verifies our process against EN ISO 1461 and ISO 9001 requirements. The line processes roughly 25 tons per shift and runs two shifts daily during peak season.
building 4 — powder coating and kitting
Standard colors (RAL 6005 green, 9005 black, 9016 white) run on the automated powder line at 1.5m/min with consistent 60-80 micron coating thickness. Custom colors run on a separate manual line that we operate for low-volume orders. After coating, every panel passes through a cure oven at 180°C for 20 minutes, then a quality check station where inspectors verify color match against the reference sample, coating thickness, and visual finish. Approved panels move to kitting, where they are paired with posts, brackets, hardware bags, and isometric drawings into a complete court kit ready for container loading.
throughput and capacity
The current line produces approximately 60 complete padel court kits per month at single-shift operation and 110 per month at double-shift. Capacity expands to 160 per month with a planned third shift for the autumn 2026 installation season. Lead time from PO to ex-works Bologna is 18 working days for standard kits, 28-35 days for custom color or branding orders. Sea freight to most Mediterranean and Middle East ports adds another 12-14 days.
quality control gates buyers can audit
We host buyer audits at the factory four times a year, typically aligned with major trade shows. During an audit, buyers walk the production line, review batch records for in-process orders, witness a test panel production run, and review the most recent third-party galvanization audit. We provide full traceability documentation with every shipment — mill certificates for steel, galvanization batch records, powder batch records, and weld inspection logs.
questions B2B buyers ask about factory audits
Can I send my own quality inspector before shipment?
Yes. We host buyer inspectors at our facility for pre-shipment inspections on orders above 10 courts. The inspector reviews the finished goods against the order specification, witnesses a sampling test, and signs the pre-shipment document with us. This service is included in the FOB price for orders above the threshold.
What certifications does the factory hold?
We are certified to ISO 9001:2015 for quality management, EN 1090-1 for structural steel fabrication, and EN ISO 1461 for galvanization. FIP compliance is verified at the court level rather than the factory level, but our standard kit is engineered to FIP dimensions and load cases.
How do you handle quality issues discovered after delivery?
Quality claims must be filed within 30 days of receipt with photographic evidence. We respond within 5 working days with a root cause analysis and a remediation plan — replacement panels, on-site repair visit, or credit against the next order. In our 2025 shipments the claim rate was 0.4% by panel count, and 100% of claims were resolved without escalation.
A padel court fence factory is more than a building with welding stations. It is an integrated production system where wire arrives as commodity stock and leaves as a fully engineered, certified, FIP-compliant court kit. The buyers who get the best outcomes are the ones who understand the production timeline, ask for traceability documentation, and audit the factory before committing to large-volume orders.
