While operating conventional spooler system in heavy industries such as winch reel and cranes, wire rope tangling and twisting leads wire aging with short life cycle and entangling occurs catastrophic damage to the whole system. The aim of this work is investigating a tension control system using a magneto rheological brake (MRB) to provide back tension to prevent frequent part changes and fatal malfunction. In order to achieve this aim, a basic MRB is first designed and analyzed using finite element method (FEM) with electromagnetic field and fluid analysis are performed. As second step, a prototype of the an MRB is fabricated with the optimized structural parameters and experimental apparatus is constructed. Moreover, output torque characteristics of the designed MRB with the various input current and rotational speed are evaluated. Consequently, a conventional proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller is designed for a tension control, and the control results show the feasibility for tension control of winch spooler system.