Hmm, Most of the flashlamps I've seen have MTBF of about a million flashes.
I suppose if the system runs it at the upper end of the power envelope then
it can die young, but for something like anno removal or etching metal,
you can definitely stay on the lower levels of power... You would also
want to keep the pulse duration high to minimize the damage. If the
lamp is clean, I'd expect it to last for a while barring a hairline crack.
If you post a pic or the model of lamp I can dig up more info on it for you.

BTW 10Hz is plenty fast for a nice anno bleaching system since you have
a very high power level. One of the shops I go to uses a 6W argon for anno
bleaching and due to the extremely low power, it takes about 2-3 hours to see the design. It's pretty cool though since you can do some nifty shading you
wouldn't otherwise be able to do.