SBA spotlights Fort Worth veteran-owned AGS Additive Manufacturing for aerospace parts

Kelly Loeffler’s Small Business Administration put Fort Worth’s AGS Additive Manufacturing in the spotlight, elevating a third-generation, veteran-owned shop that builds aerospace and medical parts with domestic metal 3D printing and CNC machining. For the 3D printing world, the bigger signal is credibility: when Washington points to a shop like AGS as a model, it reinforces the case for U.S.-based additive manufacturing as a real production tool, not just a prototyping novelty.

AGS says it is based at 2413 Whitmore Street in Fort Worth, Texas, and has more than 60 years of manufacturing experience behind it. The company specializes in metal 3D printing and CNC machining for aerospace, medical, military and robotics work, and says its laser powder bed fusion printer is used for tight tolerances, reduced assembly time and rapid prototyping. AGS also says it prints in metals including steel, aluminum, titanium, cobalt chrome and inconel. America Makes has previously described the firm as a third-generation veteran-owned business with over 60 years of manufacturing experience.

AGS is part of Goold Holdings, alongside Southwest Industrial Services Inc., AAA Canlines and AAA Industrial Chromium Company. That broader industrial base matters because it points to the kind of manufacturing network that can support additive parts from raw production through finishing and machining, the same chain of services that often determines whether a part stays a one-off print or becomes a repeatable production job.

Loeffler, the 28th administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, has made domestic manufacturing a central policy theme since taking office in 2025. The agency launched its Made in America Manufacturing Initiative on March 10, 2025, then followed with actions in 2026 that included waiving most upfront fees for small manufacturers in fiscal year 2026 and introducing a new Made in America loan guarantee to support manufacturers. The SBA says small manufacturers make up 98% of all manufacturers in the United States, and it has tied veteran-business support to manufacturing outreach, capital access and workforce-development tools.

That public backing could matter beyond one Fort Worth shop. The SBA says certified service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses can compete for federal sole-source and set-aside contracts, and veteran-owned businesses can use VetCert and other contracting assistance programs. With the SBA’s Dallas/Fort Worth District Office serving 72 counties in northeastern Texas, AGS sits inside a region where aerospace and advanced manufacturing already carry weight. If that momentum keeps building, the practical payoff for desktop users could be more U.S.-based service capacity, stronger confidence in domestic materials and a friendlier environment for the shops that bridge hobby-scale design and industrial production.