Design Community Recognizes AK Coatings’ Innovative Engineering
Antimicrobial-coated Steel Engineering Team One of Three Chosen in Product Design and Development’s 2003 Engineering Awards Program

Middletown, OH, 3/19/2003 — Readers of Product Design and Development magazine have named AK Coatings’ engineers a winner of the 2003 Engineering Awards Program. The team was selected for its development of AK Coatings’ AgIONTM antimicrobial-coated steels. AK Coatings is a subsidiary of AK Steel (NYSE: AKS).

Product Design and Development designed the annual awards program to salute engineering ideas that improve the world. The award was presented at a ceremony held earlier this month in Chicago.

“The 2003 Engineering Awards Program recognizes the engineers responsible for the most creative, innovative, and useful engineering designs of the year,” said Product Design and Development editor-in-chief Lisa Arrigo.

AK Coatings’ engineers were selected from hundreds of teams to appear as finalists in Product Design and Development’s December issue. Readers of Product Design and Development, which is circulated nationally to 160,000 design engineers, served as the final judges of the awards program.

The AgION antimicrobial compound, from Boston area-based AgION Technologies, Inc., is an advanced inorganic material containing silver ions within a zeolite matrix. When moisture is present, the zeolite provides controlled release of silver ions into the environment. This controlled release provides continuous antimicrobial protection.

For more than 50 years, Product Design and Development has been the source for design engineers looking for that key spark of inspiration to create their design projects. Each issue of Product Design and Development provides design engineers with the inspiration to achieve success - the new products and new technologies they need to do their job and get their company’s products to market quicker.

About AK Coatings
AK Coatings manufactures a full line of flat rolled stainless and carbon steels with coatings containing the AgION antimicrobial compound for customers in HVAC, construction, food equipment, food processing, appliance and medical equipment industries. The antimicrobial-coated steel suppresses the growth of a broad array of destructive microbes including bacteria, molds and fungi. For more information, visit www.akcoatings.com.

About AK Steel
AK Steel produces flat-rolled carbon, stainless and electrical steel products for automotive, appliance, construction and manufacturing markets, as well as tubular steel products. Additional information about AK Steel is available on the company’s web site at www.aksteel.com.

AgION™ antimicrobial is not intended as a substitute for good hygiene. Coated products must still be cleaned to insure the surfaces will be free of destructive microbes. AK Steel makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, as to the efficacy of AgION™ antimicrobial, which is a registered trademark of AgION Technologies, Inc.

Additional Media Contacts:
Megan Licursi, HSR BtoB, 513.346.5543, mlicursi@hsr.com; Kevin Dugan, HSR BtoB, 513.346.3429, kdugan@hsr.com.