Abstract:To address the weak characteristics of incipient faults, the coupling of multiple faults, and the limited online early-warning capability of medical centrifuges, a fault detection method integrating time–frequency features with a residual dense network is proposed. First, empirical mode decomposition is combined with the pseudo Wigner–Ville distribution to suppress cross-term interference and construct refined time–frequency representations. A hybrid convolution module incorporating local binary coding is then designed. Dense connections, cross-layer residual connections, and an adaptive genetic algorithm are further introduced to enhance fault features and optimize network parameters. Finally, a hierarchical early-warning mechanism is established by combining dynamic thresholds with classification confidence. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves high recognition accuracy for normal conditions, bearing wear, rotor imbalance, and compound faults. It maintains favorable stability and noise robustness over the signal-to-noise ratio range of 0–20 dB, with a detection latency of 5.92 ms per sample, and enables advance warning of progressive faults. The method provides technical support for intelligent maintenance and safety management of medical equipment.