Failure investigation of welded 430 stainless steel plates for conveyor belts

•Failure investigation was conducted on butt welded belt (copper billet casting processes) that suffered from cracking•The belt is made of AISI 430 Ferritic stainless steel.•The investigation revealed that the butt weld were in sound conditions, namely no evidences of lack of weld penetration and voids or porosities.•The failure of weld joint was concluded to be due to susceptibility to IGSCC in the presence of high temperature water•The IGSCC was found to be due to depletion of chromium content along the grain boundaries resulting from the formation of chromium carbides and untampered martensites•AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel have low weldability in term of grain growth at HAZ, sensitization and brittleness.