a device for cooling and granulating molten thermoplastic strands emerging from dies which either drop along the falling line starting at the dies or are guided in an operating position through a coolant bath , freely stressed between guide rollers fitted in the bath and then taken into a granulator . in the region between the dies and the coolant bath there is a precooling device which carries the plastic strands emerging from the dies and takes them to the coolant bath . behind the precooling device there is a gripping device with opposed clamping rollers which can open and shut and move along a guiding rail to grip the forward ends of the plastic strands after they have been separated by a separator movable through the falling line of the strands . the rollers with the forward ends of the strands are moved along the guiding rail running through the region of the coolant bath as far as the granulator , where they release the strands thereinto .