Published research is minimal on vibration characteristics of hermetically sealed electromagnetic relay (EMR) exposed to mechanical environment. The vibration characteristics of armature system, link contact system with electromagnetic system will cause EMR malfunction. The nonlinear dynamics model of armature systems was studied by considering electromagnetic attraction force and opposite mechanical force in this paper. Angular displacements of armature under different sinusoidal vibration conditions are solved in order to obtain the failure mode result from armature system. Vibration tests showed the presented analyzing method is suitable for EMR. The conclusions are instructive for increasing vibration resistance of armature systems of EMR, and are significant for reliability design of switch apparatus.