Argos Surface Technologies on the track with the Salento Racing Team: industry meets academia

Takeaways

• A partnership between company and university providing a real boost to technical expertise, sharing knowledge and technology.
• Argos Surface Technologies is supporting the Salento Racing Team from the University of Salento, in the development of its first electric single-seater.
• The Group developed surface treatments for key vehicle components: the transmission gear, nuts for the wheel hub and aluminium busbars.
• These university projects represent a space for experimentation, where academic skills and industrial expertise come together to overcome real technological challenges.

Innovation arises when education and industry work side by side

For a manufacturing company to be competitive, it must be able to innovate. But innovation does not only take place in production plants. It can arise in other contexts, such as the academic sphere. In university laboratories, students, researchers and businesses share expertise and experiment with new solutions to real-world problems.

For an industrial group like Argos Surface Technologies, university partnerships make it possible to contribute to the education of future industry professionals, providing access to technology, experience and expertise gained through daily work in industrial production.

It is in this spirit that our partnership with the Salento Racing Team was born, working on development of the university team’s first electric single-seater. Engineering students from the University of Salento have designed and built a competitive car to race in Formula SAE.

Formula SAE: the international university competition bringing together academia and industry

Formula SAE is an international university competition involving students from institutes all around the world in the design, building and trial of a single-seater racing car. Founded in the US in 1981 and now a global organisation, it is one of the leading practical training initiatives for engineering students. Participants tackle design, organisational and management challenges similar to those encountered in the automotive industry.

Each team develops their car handling the entire design process, from technical definition of components through to creation of the prototype. During the competition, the design is evaluated by a panel of judges made up of motorsport professionals and industrial figures, with static testing focused on design, costs and business plan, and dynamic testing on the track to assess the car’s acceleration, handling, resilience and reliability.

In this context, interaction with specialised companies is an integral part of the learning process.  With the support of Argos ST, the students of the Salento Racing Team where able to explore surface treatments and production processes used on a daily basis in the industry, learning how choice of the most suitable technology can affect the performance, durability and reliability of components.

The first electric single-seater of the Salento Racing Team participated in the 2026 edition of Formula SAE Italy, raced from 2 to 6 September at the Autodromo Riccardo Paletti di Varano de’ Melegari track.

Argos ST’s contribution: when surface treatment becomes part of the design

For this project, Argos Surface Technologies worked on the creation of several aluminium components, proposing the most suitable treatments based on the stresses each piece would be subject to on the track.

The transmission gear was treated with hard anodizing, a treatment that increases surface hardness and resistance to wear, essential properties for a component subject to constant mechanical stress.

For the nuts on the wheel hub a gold-coloured natural anodizing process was used, improving the surface protection of the aluminium and giving the component a custom finish aligned with the team’s visual identity.

The third treatment was applied to several aluminium busbars, used for distribution of electrical current within the vehicle. After sandblasting, these underwent high-phosphorus chemical nickel plating, with a thickness of 10 microns and subsequent heat treatment. This coating ensures uniform deposition even on complex structures, improving corrosion resistance, surface hardness and stability of the component in the presence of vibrations, temperature fluctuations and particularly demanding operating conditions.

Building expertise, together

The partnership with the Salento Racing Team is part of a broader vision where relationships with universities and training centres help to shape the future of the manufacturing industry.

The evolution of electric mobility, advanced materials, precision engineering and surface treatments requires professional figures who can integrate theoretical knowledge, experimentation and industrial culture.

Supporting projects like the Salento Racing Team contributes to high-quality university-level education, fostering ongoing dialogue between the worlds of research, design and production.

For Argos Surface Technologies, collaborating with universities represents an investment in the people who will contribute to evolution of the industry in coming years. These future professionals can transform technological challenges into concrete solutions, injecting innovation, quality and value into all levels of the production and supply chain.

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