Abstract: The formation reasons of rope strand signal in magnetic leakage detection method of steel wire rope were analyzed, a signal suppression method of rope strand based on magnetic sensitive direction modulation was proposed, and a magnetic sensitive direction modulation experimental device was built to eliminate rope strand signal characteristics. The signal characteristics of rope strand in different magnetic sensitive directions were tested and compared. Finally, the best magnetic sensitive direction for rope strand signal suppression was determined through experimental analysis. The results showed the method greatly inhibited the noise signal of rope strand and improved the signal-to-noise ratio of rope damage signal.