The document discusses cotter joints, which use a flat wedge-shaped piece of steel to connect two rods transmitting axial motion without rotation. Cotter joints can experience tensile or compressive forces and are used in connections like piston rods and valve rods. A typical cotter joint involves one rod fitting into a socket in another rod, with a cotter driven into slots in both parts to rigidly connect them. The document provides parameters for a cotter joint and examples of failures, but does not give the failure equations. It also provides an example problem to design a cotter joint supporting a load ranging from 30 kN in compression to tension.