Abstract: In view of problems of low efficiency, serious wasting cost and poor safety of existing steel rope damage detection methods which using artificial method to inspect and regularly replacing steel rope, a detection system of solenoid magnetic induction for broken steel wire rope was designed. The detection theory of the system is: when broken wire occurs, the permeability will be reduced accordingly, reluctance increases, and the inductance decreases, and then induced electromotive force will be generated because of the imbalance magnetic field of coil. According to the induced electromotive force, the situation of broken wires can be determined. The experiment results show that the system overcomes defects that traditional electromagnetic detection technology cannot accurately detect internal broken wire rope, and accuracy can reach above 95%.