looks like the spacer between the fan,heatsink and motor. It's there to keep everything inline, which is probably why the filament feed doesn't line up.

And if you've got filament that breaks that easily - get better filement.

The only stuff I've had that did the 'break as soon as you looked at it' thing - was esun pla.
The reprapper stuff i don't even bother to seal in a bag between uses anymore :-)