Tension member
Any component that carries the horizontal tension imposed on the boom. They are normally chains or wire ropes running along the bottom of the skirt. Some manufactures may run wire ropes along the top of the freeboard as well as the bottom of the skirt. Some booms may have heavy fabric that acts as the tension member. Others have tension members that are exterior to the boom. In this case they are positioned upstream and attached to both top and bottom with a series of bridle.
The tension member should never be lengthened as the stress will be transferred to the material usually causing the material to part thus loss of the boom from the operation.
Connections
A quick-connect device that permit the coupling together of as many lengths of booms as are necessary. These are just 6 of the many different types used by different manufactures and most will not interconnect.
When ordering boom make sure all your connections are the same to reduce problems during a future incident.
Some booms come with plastic thumb screws which can be brittle in winter or soft in hot climates, either way you ring the winged head off them causing a serious problem of getting the remains out of the hole.
Over the years these have been replaced by spring loaded toggle pins like the one on the left. These push through the holes in the connection where the toggle then drops and the spring holds it in place. These are fine for training but during operations where booms may be out for weeks, metal bolts with wing nuts and spring washers are a safer.
There is a need for at least two in each connector, I have deployed booms where the manufacturer only supplied one in the middle. This worked fine while it was being deployed but when the weight came of the boom the connectors came apart slightly which allowed the current to bend all the connectors in the middle.
All responders should have spare pins and nuts and bolts in their pockets, in many cases the pins are connected to the boom with small wires that are pop riveted to the connection. Unfortunately these wires break so if you don't have a spare the boom does not get deployed.
Valves
The original Monsun valve was first introduced in 1971 and is used by various manufactures around the world.
The MV XS (Yellow) is particularly effective in oil booms of limited size, inflatable boats, tanks or other similar objects. Photo to follow of a tool I have to open and close the valve, as they tear finger ends.
MV XII (Black) has a low profile, easy-grip screw cap, no hooking parts and a spring-loaded valve disc that is extremely easy to lock and release and a large free area allow volumes of air to passthrough in optimised quantities, delivering faster inflation and deflation.
Valves removed through bad handling photo right cannot be replaced without the correct tools, it is much better to handle equipment with care than to find yourself with insufficient boom to complete the task in hand.