Sensing running wire breaking........

Dear Friends ,

I have a machine in which the 20 toughened steel wires wires are getting coiled to form twisted wire cable , Now if a wire breaks then the which finally forms is one less copper wire .

So i need to sense the breaking of the wire .

Which mechanism would be better .

a.) Sensing the rotating strand of each copper wire using proximity , when the rotation of a particular strand stops it means machine is no longer pulling that strand due to wire break. and stop the machine.

b. sense the individual wire by some means for breaking .


Solution for the first is good if the wire is in actual rotating some pulley and we put the proximity switch on the pulley.
But if the wire is not rotating any pulley and it is just being pulled from the strand as it is then i need something to sense the wire itself . Please suggest the mechanism that can be used .

Hi,
May be some solution exist but it depends on few parameters
1. diameter of individual wires
2. Are they electrically insulated?
3. Is there a particular length defined while detecting a break (length of cable from the twister)
4. Exact material name of wire.